New Crime Maps

A few weeks ago I blogged about Coalition plans to review approaches to tackling anti-social behaviour.
A new website went live today which helps residents find out about crime in their area. The data available goes beyond previous websites and goes down to street level. It also points people in the direction of their local Police Team via social media as well as traditional beat meetings.
The offences that are listed on the website will relate to the previous month and the website http://www.police.uk/ will also detail which Police officers are responsible for their area, have Twitter feeds, crime appeals and information about local community beat meetings.
This website builds on the information available via the Thames Valley Police website which recently began using local crime data. The Police have been making data available to the public at Neighbourhood Action Group meetings for a few years now although it was always frustrating when data would say things like: "anti-social behaviour above average" as this wouldn't give much detail about where it was taking place or how crime levels compared to other areas.
It is always a struggle to get people to report crime - hopefully this website will encourage people that crime reports are taken seriously.Information is power and I hope this data will be a useful tool for residents, community groups and councillors in Reading to find out what crime problems are being reported in their area and more importantly get action taken.