The Police have launched a new crime map website today, building on their more general police crime maps that have been available for some months now.
The instant success of the police crime maps managed to grind to a halt and crash by 10am on its first morning, under the sheer volume of numbers of people who wanted to look up the crime in their street. The Police estimate that between 75,000 and 300,000 people each minute were trying to log in and search their area.
The crime map website is the most detailed crime information ever made publicly available, allowing people to type in their postcode and see the amount of crimes in their town and also how many of those crimes are local to them; it even shows what types of crime are happening in every area.
Already there have been some errors spotted in the data, as data entry operatives at the call centres in two areas had been inserting their own postcode into the system instead of where the reported crimes had taken place! But these teething problems will be ironed out in time.
The crime map website could prove to be useful if you’re looking to move to a new area, or even book a holiday hotel, but unless you can be sure the data is correct it could scare you away from perfectly safe areas or vice virsa.
What do you think of the new site? http://www.police.uk – try your postcode or if you want to see a general Devon and Cornwall interactive map click here
