Comments on: Crime mapping for London, Boris? We’ll start the clock now http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2008/05/crime-mapping-for-london-boris-well-start-the-clock-now/ A Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to non-personal data about the UK and its citizens Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:05:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Colin Drane http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2008/05/crime-mapping-for-london-boris-well-start-the-clock-now/comment-page-1/#comment-86161 Colin Drane Tue, 06 May 2008 15:40:15 +0000 http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=194#comment-86161 Crime mapping is a relative simple task provided that you've got available data. Privacy issues can be handled easily by blocking addresses and marking the crime in the nearest block or intersection. Even if the data is in paper report form, my company, Spotcrime (dot) com, can manually code 1,000 crime incidents daily. Depending on the format, we could have a working map of London crime incidents within as little as two weeks. Within a month, we could be providing crime alerts to anyone requesting them. Crime mapping is a relative simple task provided that you’ve got available data. Privacy issues can be handled easily by blocking addresses and marking the crime in the nearest block or intersection. Even if the data is in paper report form, my company, Spotcrime (dot) com, can manually code 1,000 crime incidents daily. Depending on the format, we could have a working map of London crime incidents within as little as two weeks. Within a month, we could be providing crime alerts to anyone requesting them.

]]> By: Simon Dickson http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2008/05/crime-mapping-for-london-boris-well-start-the-clock-now/comment-page-1/#comment-86069 Simon Dickson Tue, 06 May 2008 09:00:53 +0000 http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=194#comment-86069 It won't be easy. A year ago I approached the local police, requesting this data for use in building a proposed community website. A relatively informal request, not a full-on FOI demand or anything. They politely refused, on the grounds of confidentiality and resources. They wanted to protect victims' privacy, and didn't have the data in the sort of format I was after anyway. It seemed reasonable, and I didn't have the energy to push harder. Boris could succeed here, because: a) it was an explicit manifesto commitment, b) he's dealing with a single large-scale entity, and c) he has some degree of management oversight of them. And that could open the floodgates for other initiatives elsewhere. On Malachi's comment... Whilst I'm no expert, I'm not sure the lack of a gazetteer should be a hurdle. The Google Maps API, for example, includes a function to echo back the centre point of the map view you're looking at. So you simply overlay a crosshair on the centre point, and tell people to zoom/drag the map (or sat view) to where they want. Bingo, you've got your long/lat coordinates. I've done this on several projects, and it works great. It won’t be easy. A year ago I approached the local police, requesting this data for use in building a proposed community website. A relatively informal request, not a full-on FOI demand or anything. They politely refused, on the grounds of confidentiality and resources. They wanted to protect victims’ privacy, and didn’t have the data in the sort of format I was after anyway. It seemed reasonable, and I didn’t have the energy to push harder.

Boris could succeed here, because: a) it was an explicit manifesto commitment, b) he’s dealing with a single large-scale entity, and c) he has some degree of management oversight of them. And that could open the floodgates for other initiatives elsewhere.

On Malachi’s comment… Whilst I’m no expert, I’m not sure the lack of a gazetteer should be a hurdle. The Google Maps API, for example, includes a function to echo back the centre point of the map view you’re looking at. So you simply overlay a crosshair on the centre point, and tell people to zoom/drag the map (or sat view) to where they want. Bingo, you’ve got your long/lat coordinates. I’ve done this on several projects, and it works great.

]]> By: Malachi Rangecroft http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2008/05/crime-mapping-for-london-boris-well-start-the-clock-now/comment-page-1/#comment-85929 Malachi Rangecroft Mon, 05 May 2008 20:00:49 +0000 http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=194#comment-85929 The Conservative paper mentioned the West Yorkshire Police site www.beatcrime.info which was commissioned by the West Yorkshire Police Authority but supported by WY Police. It already shows the location of crimes and incidents but only at max accuracy of 1:50 000 scale. Part of the reason is accuracy of the data...we plan to improve beatcrime.info and include street level mapping, but this is combined with another project to improve the location element (x, y co-ordinates) of crimes and incidents that are recorded. Most Police gazetteers are based on AddressPoint (with some Police Forces working on projects to utilise the NLPG as the trusted data source for their gaz) but this does not provide enough detail for non-addressable locations. Many crimes & incidents might occur on a street corner, or at a bus stop, or by an ATM - find those in AddressPoint or even the NLPG! This leads to Forces having to purchase expensive additional data to complement their 'addressable' data in an attempt to create a do-it-all gazetteer - needed for street level data points at the scale Boris envisages. The Police are working on a National Emergency Services Gazetteer project to create a definitive gaz, but this will take time, resources & money. Good luck to the Met if Tuesday is indeed the starting point for the implementation of accurate crime mapping on the web! But this may just be the required incentive to help the Police (and other Emergency Services) get the complete gazetteer they need for operational purposes, to aid in timely resource deployment and accurate crime mapping... The Conservative paper mentioned the West Yorkshire Police site http://www.beatcrime.info which was commissioned by the West Yorkshire Police Authority but supported by WY Police. It already shows the location of crimes and incidents but only at max accuracy of 1:50 000 scale. Part of the reason is accuracy of the data…we plan to improve beatcrime.info and include street level mapping, but this is combined with another project to improve the location element (x, y co-ordinates) of crimes and incidents that are recorded. Most Police gazetteers are based on AddressPoint (with some Police Forces working on projects to utilise the NLPG as the trusted data source for their gaz) but this does not provide enough detail for non-addressable locations. Many crimes & incidents might occur on a street corner, or at a bus stop, or by an ATM – find those in AddressPoint or even the NLPG! This leads to Forces having to purchase expensive additional data to complement their ‘addressable’ data in an attempt to create a do-it-all gazetteer – needed for street level data points at the scale Boris envisages. The Police are working on a National Emergency Services Gazetteer project to create a definitive gaz, but this will take time, resources & money. Good luck to the Met if Tuesday is indeed the starting point for the implementation of accurate crime mapping on the web! But this may just be the required incentive to help the Police (and other Emergency Services) get the complete gazetteer they need for operational purposes, to aid in timely resource deployment and accurate crime mapping…

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