Crime maps
The Metropolitan Police have launched a crime mapping service, which allows you to see how much crime is in your area down to something like ward level, and how it compares to regional and London-wide averages.It's come in for some heavy criticism over here and here. The argument is that the map shows Primrose Hill crime to be below average, and yet the statistics show Camden Town with Primrose Hill to be above average, and so it is either "Sheer blithering incompetence or outright lies".
Well or a breakdown in logic. The map shows areas of Primrose Hill and areas of Camden Town separately. Camden Town is a high crime area, but (and depending on where you draw the boundaries) 1 ward in Primrose Hill is below average, 2 average (try searching for postcode NW1 8YB). This is consistent with Primrose Hill being collectively below average. There is a small area which about half is in Primrose Hill which is above average, but that still (and in fact does) mean the area is below average.
It's also worth nothing, for those who fear crime in London (and I have argued before that it is way too high and much more effort should be expended in fighting it) that the same blogger describes the streets of Primrose Hill as 'particularly mean', 'so scary', suffering 'rampant crime' and believes that only five other wards in London have higher crime. Anyone familiar with Primrose Hill will find that a reassuring statement about the level of crime in London as a whole.
Labels: crime
posted by Matthew @ 8/26/2008 09:39:00 AM
Comments: 3
