Robert Powell investigates how the new crime mapping tool could wrongly knock pounds off the value of your property...
Two incidences of violent crime, eight of anti-social behaviour and two of the disconcertingly vague ‘other crime’. That’s the criminal record for December for the two streets my flat lies on.
And I thought it was a nice area!
Yes, the Home Office’s new crime mapping website has been causing anguish for curtain-twitchers nationwide as they find out that their quaint street is not as safe as they’d originally thought.
But as well as inducing red faces for proud homeowners, this new tool could actually devalue homes on streets with high crime rates, as well as push up home insurance premiums.
Let’s take a closer look at the website...
The crime map
The site is the first of its kind in the world and allows users to see the total number of crimes that took place on their street or in their neighbourhood in the last month.
The crimes are divided into six categories; burglary, anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime, violent crime and other crime. But despite costing £300,000 to develop, the site got off to a bad start on its very first day after it crashed under the weight of 18 million people trying to log on every hour.
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Right from the outset the exact point of the crime map has been fairly unclear. The Home Office claims that it is part of an attempt to increase transparency in crime, policing and justice but it’s easy to see how this map could have a negative effect on the public.
Renters and home-buyers alike could be put off properties if the street or neighbourhood appears to have a high number of crimes, driving house prices down in certain areas. Likewise home insurance rates may increase in areas with high levels of burglary.
Now of course, if you are hunting around for a new home, you’ll want to know if a property is sat slap bang in the middle of a crime hotspot. So in that respect, the new site is a good thing.
But there are still some in-built inaccuracies within the crime map that you should be aware of:
Categories
The crime map has re-ignited the debate over the definition of anti-social behaviour. Indeed, in the context of this map, everything from firearms incidents, graffiti and drunken behaviour to hoax calls, excessive noise from a pub or a particularly loud pet is included as anti-social behaviour.
This proved to be a problem for two streets in Sussex which were unexpectedly highlighted as the anti-social hotspots of the south. In fact, both streets had police stations on them meaning that any hoax calls to the station were logged as anti-social behaviour and attributed to the street as a whole.
Location
Homeowners on the quiet Surrey Street in Portsmouth were shocked to learn last week that they lived on the third worst street for crime in the UK! The map showed that 136 crimes had been committed on the street in just a month.
In fact, there were only two.
The map had attributed several cases of shoplifting from a nearby supermarket and violent crime from a local nightclub to the street. What’s more, because shoplifting (along with sex crimes) is classified under ‘other crimes’, residents on the street had no idea what type of crime was apparently rampant on their doorsteps.
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The crime map also tags street-level incidents to the centre of the road length – not to the actual location where they occurred. This is why when I checked my postcode on the map I froze for a second as I stared at a marker appearing to show a hive of anti-social behaviour going on right outside my front door!
Worryingly, my road isn’t very long, so the location is still fairly accurate. But if you live at the crime-free end of a long road where the other end is dodgy - you’ll still get tarred with the same high crime level brush!
Similarly, if your home is on a short street you may be relieved to look at the map and see that you live in a zero-crime area. But this may not be entirely accurate as crime information for streets with fewer than 12 houses has been shifted out to the surrounding area in order to prevent the victims from being identified.
This could have the effect of falsely representing some streets as crime-free paradises and others as violent hotspots - unfairly influencing house prices and insurance premiums.
Other sites
In many ways the new crime map is the offspring of two similar sites; upmystreet.com and Google Street View.
Like the crime map, Up My Street allows you to tap in your postcode and view a full profile of your neighbourhood including crime figures, average income, demographic make-up and typical professions. It varies from the crime map in that the profiles are not bespoke; rather each postcode is matched to a general profile. But it’s still scarily accurate – I keyed in my home postcode and my parents' postcode and the descriptions were both spot on, even down to what newspapers we read!
The problem with generalised postcode profiles like these is that they are just that – generalised. So if you happen to live in a small crime-free Independent-on-Sunday-reading enclave of a larger crime-ridden Daily-Mail-reading area – you may find many people put off buying your house if they check your postcode online before actually coming to view it.
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House price isn’t the only thing that can be affected by generalised postcode profiling. Many credit rating agencies and life insurance providers are now also using postcode level information to help make decisions about you. Read How your postcode costs you money to find out more.
Are these sites needed?
The Home Office claimed that the huge demand for the crime map on its launch day proved that this information was popular and wanted. But other than sending out an ‘anti big-brother’ message that the government is prepared to share the information it holds about us, what real point does this map have?
I’d guess that a majority of the millions of people who use the crime map are not actively enjoying the new found fruits of transparent policing – they’re just being nosy! That’s why I logged on!
And what’s more, the inbuilt inaccuracies within the map undermine the whole point of its existence and could mean that the tool does more damage than good.
Clearly any attempt by the government to become more open and transparent is a good thing, but if it is going to start making ideological gestures to appease those Orwell readers amongst us, can’t it pick more productive and accurate ones?
What do you think?
Or am I wrong? Is this crime map a good thing? Surely, anything that prevents estate agents pulling more wool over our eyes when we’re hunting for properties is a positive step?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.
And to find out how to cut your home insurance premiums, read Eight reasons to switch your home insurance today.
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