streetviolence.org website allows victims in London to pinpoint exactly where they were attacked

[richard]

Website allows victims to pinpoint exactly where they were attacked in London…but police say it could delay investigations

• Users able to flag crime hot-spots and give detailed description of crimes in London
• Met Police will not condone website as they want users to report directly to them first
• Website could be rolled out to other towns & cities in the UK

Victims of muggings & street attacks in London can now click on a map to pinpoint exactly where they were targeted.

The site uses Google Map as a a basis, on which users can drop 'pins' to warn neighbours and visitors about recent crimes, provide descriptions of incidents, encourage witnesses to come forward, or simply thank Good Samaritans for lending a hand.

However despite the ambitions of Streetviolence.org, the Met has refused to endorse the site, saying it could stop people reporting directly to the police.

Scotland Yard said it had been liaising with the charity for more than a year after expressing interest in some of its early proposed functions. But officials reached a decision not to support the launch earlier this month.

The Met said: 'We do not endorse the reporting of street crime through the MPS website or any other third party website.

'This is predominantly due to concerns over victim safety and the importance of deploying officers in person as quickly as possible to scenes of serious street crime.

'Street crime is taken very seriously by the MPS, and in order to reduce street crime and catch offenders, the MPS urges victims to contact police in the quickest way possible by calling 999 or speaking to an officer on patrol nearby.'

Witness Confident, which set up the website, told the BBC that official crime statistics for England and Wales in 2010-2011 suggested more than half of street robberies and assaults are not reported to police. It also said that the Met stopped using appeal boards for crimes other than murders or road traffic accidents in 2009.

It also criticised the Home Office crime-mapping website, available at www.police.uk, which it said does not distinguish stranger attacks from domestic or acquaintance violence, therefore making people 'assume the risk to them of violent crime is worse than it is'.

Witness Confident's director Guy Dehn said the new site 'cuts the initial hassle and frustration that puts many victims off reporting the crime to begin with'.

He told the BBC: 'As a way of telling the police you can help, the site is a welcome alternative to hanging behind at the scene, standing around at a police station or waiting in line at a call centre.

'This matters as there's little chance the police can make our streets safer if witnesses don't come forward.

'One of the things that has been lost in recent years is engagement with police....If you want to help police, this allows you to contact them 24/7 at the convenience of your computer.'

The Met Police said it will continue to monitor the website and is open to exploring any initiatives to help reduce crime and catch criminals.

Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime said he hoped the website 'progresses in its aim to encourage greater on-line reporting and facilitating greater information sharing amongst victims, witnesses and the police'.

Been a victim of crime in London, post it on www.streetviolence.org it might make the place a safer place to be ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.


Source
www.dailymail.co.uk

[richard]

Good, it's about time a free and easy method was provided to allow victims to post information on crime without having to pay to report the incident or get drowned in pointless layers of police bureaucracy.

Is this the beginning of real transparency as to the real levels of crime taking place in London are displayed.

I hope they are able to roll this out across the country in the near future, because if I'm quite frank, the level of policing at street level has become a joke.