Street-Level Crime Maps Published
A website that includes online maps of specific recorded crime incidents in England and Wales has just been launched at midnight. Residents can now see what offences occur in and around their own streets within the last month (usually updated monthly around the 22nd).
This new transparent service responds to criticism that people have recently lost confidence in national crime figures which seem to change their definition regularly. Similar statistics and maps have been available in the US for a while now and tend to show much more detailed information than the police.uk version.
Burglaries in TW11
Crimes are broken down into six categories: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other and anti-social behaviour. Sex crimes have been included in the “other” category, along with crimes such as theft and shoplifting, to help prevent victims at geographic locations from being identified.
Another aim is to provide confidence for witnesses and victims of crime that their evidence given has resulted in recorded crime that may help prevent further incidents and help catch the criminals involved. Charity Victim Support have stated that it is important that victims of crime have consented to whether information about their particular crime is released – some are not included in these maps.
Vehicle crime in TW11
The site also includes a wealth of useful local police information & crime-fighting information. Local police contact details, neighbourhood policing team names, local events (drop-in surgeries etc), CCTV and photo identification request and also tips and tricks to help prevent crime including preventing burglaries, staying safe from robbery, keeping vehicles safe and how to report different types of crime (including anonymously).
Perhaps most importantly the maps themselves show that even in what residents consider to be a safe town such as Teddington, crime is no stranger to the area and we can all help to prevent it.
To coincide with this new website, a new initiative to distribute regular updates on crime trends and incidents directly from local Safer Neighbourhood Teams. This is so that residents are generally better informed and in response to information requests. Updates such as these will be distributed through email and will detail emerging crime trends in the borough.
