UK police is putting crime on the map. Quite literally, the British Home Office has launched an updated version of the very popular Police.uk which provides even more data than before and at a greater detail.
Officials also say they plan to expand on the idea even more, making the site a hub for any information and data that may of interest to the public.
One interesting thing new to the site is the fact that users can compare how effective the police force in their area is compared to other places.
It's unclear whether this will actually motivate police officers to do more, or whether people in more dangerous areas can push to get more things done. But it's an interesting data point nonetheless.
The data covers all of England and Wales and visitors can compare the 43 police forces in different regions.
The first version of the site launched in February and quickly collapsed from the amount of attention it got initially. Since launch, the site has been visited 430 million times.
It's safe to say that Brits are rather concerned about their safety, or just curios about how dangerous their neighbourhood is.
The new site has even more data points than before, categories such as theft, shoplifting, criminal damage and drugs are now included.
The next step will be to include reports for public interest sites and places that tend to attract more criminal attention.
Pubs, stadiums, parks, big shops with high crime rates will be highlighted on the site. Now, the data is aggregated around streets with at least 12 postal addresses to preserve some anonymity.
Even more interesting, the plan is to add even more functionality to the site, by May 2012 citizens should be able to track the progress of any crime since it has been reported to the police and its progress in the courts.
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