As I hinted yesterday crime maps are political because they seem to provide the right sound-bites. The White paper on policing (see the link on my 6th December post) mentions crime maps over ten times. The Prime Minister mentioned crime maps in his speech on smarter government.
"Through the new online crime maps which went live last month (see link in yesterday's post)- allowing for the first time everyone in the country to search by postcode for facts about crime in their area and what is being done about it - we are exploring how people can use police data on late-night incidents to help them choose the safest routes home and to post travel tips and security tip-offs for others."
This is interesting because the crime maps he refers to do not even come close to doing the latter and only partially achieves the former. I will try to explain this over future posts as I slowly plod along.
For cyclist out there and I know there are plenty who may read this he also mentioned cycle accident maps as a shining success. I think he must be referring to:
http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/03/11/uk-cycling-accidents/
Again I think the sound bite may be more effective than the reality.
If you want to read the full speech this is the link. http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21633
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