New violent crime mapping website attracts Met's displeasure

Today sees the launch of new violent crime mapping website StreetViolence.org.

Independently run by charity Witness Confident, the site is seeking to add to the functionality currently offered by the crime mapping function offered on the police's own police.uk.

The police site offers a fairly general view of crimes by category in a neighbourhood. Street Violence will provide a service which allows members of the public to:

• Warn people about violent crime dangers
• Appeal for witnesses to a violent crime
• Report violent crimes for submission to the police
• Thank witnesses to violent crimes who stepped forward

The site's organisers have been contacted by the Met this morning with a request that the Report function is disabled. Witness Confident's director Guy Dehn told Harringay Online that he was unaware of the basis of the police objection but that they will be working with them to resolve the issue.

I asked Guy what he would say to people who feared that reporting on this level of granularity may tend to create no go areas. "The opposite is most likely the case", Guy told me, "If you look at the police.uk site, all you see is a worrying number of violent crime markers. People have no idea if it's the sort of crime that is likely to affect them. The ability to filter the crimes is more likely to give reassurance than exacerbate levels of fear". 

Guy went on to explain that StreetViolence would exclude domestic violence (currently part of the non-specific violent crime category on the police site), identify violence between people who know each other and specify the type and time of a crime.

It'll be interesting to see how Witness Confident's conversation with the police pans out and how this service develops.