Have you ever wondered what sorts of crimes have happened in a shop, nightclub or theme park that you regularly visit? Well, thanks to the Police.uk website you will soon be able to find out.
The website currently allows user to search by street, village, town or postcode and offers an array of information, including contact details for the local police, local meeting dates, recent Tweets from Twitter and a map showing crime locations.
An example of the map in action shows that Sheffield had 1430 incidents in December 2011. The majority of those were anti-social behaviour, with 584 incidents reported, and the least was robbery with 13.
Speaking of the website, Theresa May, Home Secretary said: “Armed with the information from those crime maps, people can attend their local neighbourhood beat meeting and hold their local police to account for their performance.”
Currently the map will show certain commercial properties including theatres, hospitals and sporting grounds. But many more are to be added over the next few months, including: airports, bus stations, car parks, conference and exhibition centres, ferry terminals, higher education buildings, motorway service stations, petrol stations, nightclubs, police stations, shopping centres and supermarkets.
However the name of the commercial property will not be displayed on the map, instead the word describing the building, e.g. supermarket, will be used.
The website was originally launched in February 2011, but crashed after only one hour due to 18 million people visiting the site to check what has happened in their neighbourhood. Since then the site has proven popular with people, as Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing, said: “The public appetite is clear with 453million hits to the website since its launch.
“Information is power – and crime mapping helps transfer power back to local people.”
Information about response times and any convictions made are also to be added to the website from May of this year. But will knowing crime statistics about a commercial property make people more vigilant and careful with their belongings?
After all, it only takes a second for someone to swipe an unattended bag, and you become another statistic on the crime map.
Have you used the police website? Would it put you off visiting a retail commercial property knowing that five muggings had taken place? Or will you take the information simply with a pinch of salt?
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