Newquay Crime Maps, Police new site online today!

The new crime map website went online today and promtly crashed by 10am under the sheer volume of numbers with over estimated numbers of between 75,000 and 300,000 people a minute trying to log in to search their area.

The site is the most detailed crime information ever available to the general public and should allow people to type in a postcode and see not only the amount of crimes in the town but also how many crimes are local to them and even what type of crime. 

I say that it should do that because due to glitches on the system a 300ft street in Portsmouth and two police call centres came up as 3 of the UK's crime hotspots!

The police did say that the call centres were on the list due to high numbers of hoax calls from mobile phones that went down as crimes at the location they were reported too as no location could be established. The Street in Plymouth that only has a set of flats and one pub on it reportedly had 136 crimes in December 2010 alone, which amazed the Pub landlord who said it was a quiet back street.  The local councillor also said that this was unfair on the pub as it made this quiet area look unsafe and she also questioned why the at the same time the Burglary of her own home did not show on the maps at all.

It emerged the postcode was used to record incidents of retail crime such as

shoplifting from the adjacent commercial centre and violent crime from the

bars and clubs of nearby Guildhall Walk.

There were in fact only two crimes in the street.

Glovers Court in Preston was described at the most crime-ridden place in

England and Wales, with more than 150 incidents last month.

Police later admitted the figures related to offences across the whole city centre.

The site could prove useful to people moving to new areas but unless you can be sure the data is correct it could scare you away from perfectly safe areas or vice virsa.

What do you think of the new site? click here to see it and try your postcode or for a Devon and Cornwall interactive map click here

If you manage to get on how accurate do you think it is for your area?