Encase you haven't seen it yet the police crime map details the number and type of reported crimes on (or near) each street in the UK. It makes for interesting viewing, costing around £300,000 to implement it is good for a few minutes of time wasting.One of my immediate thoughts was if this map shows that you live in an area which has a high crime rate your house may not be worth as much tomorrow. However normally everyone has a good idea as to how safe their neighborhood is. There are obviously questions being raised as to the accuracy and legitimacy of the data. For instance the exact location cannot isn’t always correct.
Is it really beneficial? I believe it will start showing benefits after a year or so of data. Then the trends can be analyzed and any unusual exceptions can be cleared up. If it helps reduce crime rates then I’m all for it, though the police surely knew where the hotspots were prior to this publication.
Is it important for the general public to know? I am a little skeptical, it wouldn’t change anything that I do. If I found that my area was particularly bad I wouldn’t suddenly feel I needed to move. Neither would it make me avoid walking down certain places, most crime is going to occur in city centres, more than likely after pub and club closing time. Heavy residential areas are also clearly going to be prone to anti social behavior but surely this wouldn’t highlight anything new to neighborhood watch groups.
Only time will tell if it turns out to be an genuine advantage to the police and public or just a impressive play thing.
2 comments:
i think part of it is just throwing people information. to the police i would guess that its just something for the public to play with and to think they're informed. as you said the police already know what they are doing, they have been at this job for over a hundred years now. it's for us :) as for house prices they need to come down as it is, the houses in this country are way over priced
I would also welcome a fall in house prices, I still got many years before I'll be looking to buy. From the way they have presented the map a price fall wouldn't be universal, might even vary street by street if anyone actually took it half seriously.
Imagine if this map took a high significance, everyone actually based property buying decisions on this slightly gimmicky app. Madness.
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