Street crime search falters at launch

Its launch hit a hitch, however, when heavy demand made it unavailable just hours after it went live at midnight on 31 January. A Home Office spokesperson told GC News at 10.00am that it had already had 4.5m hits, and that the department hoped it would soon be running smoothly again. The service, trumpeted as a quick postcode search on the police.uk website, is meant to display interactive maps marking the approximately location of incidents - such as burglaries, vehicle crime, violence and antisocial behaviour - reported to police within the previous month. Users will be able to find details about their neighbourhood policing team via the site, including information from their force's Twitter feed. There will also be information and advice about crime prevention. "We want people to be able to see what crime is happening on their street and to be able to tell their local police if they have concerns, and challenge them about how issues are being dealt with," said Theresa May, the home secretary. Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said he welcomed the move to improve accountability through greater transparency. He told The Guardian: "Crime mapping can be an effective means of letting people know what crimes are taking place in their local area, although care needs to be taken as this can potentially have an impact on the privacy of individuals such as victims or witnesses."