Online crime maps go live

Scareyourself.com

All 43 police forces across England and Wales are now offering online crime maps showing offences broken down by area.

The Metropolitan Police began offering such a service in beta in August which went down to ward level - about every 600 households. Police have used mapped crime information internally for some time when allocating resources.

As maps for different forces were created locally, the level of detail varies. Forces in Wales and the East Midlands are running their maps together.

Neil Rhodes, from the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "For many years, all forces have mapped crimes and incidents to help them focus investigations, analyse hot spots and tackle crime vigorously."

"The information now on the forces’ websites has a different, more community-focused perspective, and means the public can now look at crime levels in their community simply by putting their postcode into their local police force’s website."

The maps seen by the Reg seem to offer different levels of detail but mostly divide crime into offences like burglary, robbery, vehicle crime and violence against the person and anti-social behaviour.

To see crime levels where you live or work, go to your local police force website. The Met's version is here, Derbyshire Constabulary is here and Greater Manchester's is here.

The Home Office statement is here. ®