Last week the government launched its new CRIME MAP website, which at the click of a mouse, allows you to enter your postcode and discover how likely you are to get mugged on the way to work. I thought about blogging this last week, but unfortunately the first 2 days of service of said site were problematic and in fact the site was unavailable most of the first 48 hours. At first I wondered if their servers had been stolen, in some ironic theft, but it would appear that they were just overload by visitors.
What is uncertain is who wants this information so badly that the system crashes due to demand, it could be
- Concerned residents wanting to to see how bad their neighbourhood is.
- Unconcerned residents wanting to see how good there neighbourhood is.
- Estate agents keen to adjust house prices up or down accordingly.
- Insurance companies looking for price hike excuses.
- Police officers wanting to see how effective they are.
- Or criminals looking for areas that have not been exploited to their full potential.
I'm not cynical enough to make a judgement on the above I will let you draw your own conclusions, comment if you wish... but perhaps I will ask the local neighbourhood watch coordinator, not to call the Police if we get any more groups of youths being noisy on the street, its playing havoc with our national ranking ! But then again, as the same government is potentially reducing the police force by up to 10,000 officers we may not get a response anyway ?
