- The National Police Crime Mapping Website is owned by the Home
Office working in conjunction with the National Police Improvement
Agency (NPIA).
- The format and presentation of the crime and anti-social
behaviour data on the website is the responsibility Home Office and
the NPIA (“the agencies”). This includes the setting of the minimum
number of properties for which the data is displayed; the location
of the display point on the map and the grouping of the crime data
under the 5 headings + incidents of anti-social behaviour.
- The Home Office and the NPIA have not placed any restriction on
secondary use of the data once it is displayed on the Website (i.e.
the data may be used by any third party once it is published on the
site)
- Suffolk Constabulary is required to provide data for use on the
site in accordance with the requirements of the agencies and will
be responsible for ensuring that the data provided is
accurate.
- Once the data is provided to the agencies, Suffolk Constabulary
is not responsible and has no control over how the data is managed,
displayed or used.
The Crime Mapping Website includes Help Notes and a Frequently
Asked Questions section. The purpose of the following explanatory
notes is to supplement those on the Crime Mapping Website,
specifically for the people of Suffolk.
Frequently
asked questions
Suffolk Constabulary provides crime and anti-social behaviour
incident data to the company contracted by the Home Office and the
NPIA, Rock Kitchen Harris. The Association of Chief Police Officers
has signed an agreement with Rock Kitchen Harris on behalf of all
Chief Constables.
This agreement specifies and limits the way in which they use
this data only for the purpose of converting the data into the
agreed format for publication on the Street Level Crime
website.
The data is provided on a monthly basis direct from Suffolk
Constabulary’s crime recording system and, in the case of incidents
of anti-social behaviour, the incident recording system. Both these
systems are used to manage the actions relevant to the
investigation of crime and response to reports of anti-social
behaviour.
This means that in some cases the data may still be subject to
change when it is provided to the Street Level Crime website, e.g.
a crime may be finally recorded as ‘no crime’ because enquiries
reveal that no actual criminal offence took place, or it may be
established that an incident initially described as anti-social
behaviour may fit a different descriptor.
For this reason, the data may not compare directly with data
provided by other processes, e.g. British Crime Survey, responses
to Freedom of Information requests and information given by the
police at local community meetings.
The points on the map at which crimes/incidents are shown are
called ‘snap points’ and are not the exact
location the crime/incident occurred. These points are allocated as
follows:
- Only to streets of 12 or more properties
- If a crime/incident occurs on a street with less than 12
properties, it is included in the figures for the nearest street of
12 or more properties. This means that some streets will be
displayed as being the location of crimes/incidents that actually
occurred on neighbouring streets – the comments box will state ‘On
or near to xxx Street’.
- In rural areas where there are very view properties, a
crime/incident will be allocated to the nearest street in a 20 mile
radius of 12 or more properties. If there is no street of 12 or
more properties within a 20 mile radius, the crime/incident will
not be shown on the map.
- The comments box will point to the street – the location of the
snap point is aimed to be the centre of the street’s length and in
the centre of the roadway – the snap point does not indicate that
the crime/incident occurred at any specific property in the
street.
- Where there is a public building, e.g. hospital, police
station, council offices, parks, the snap point will be placed at
such locations
- Local inspectors have been consulted over any particular issues
in their area relating to the allocation of the snap points and the
Constabulary may make recommendations to have snap points
relocated.
The following explains the types of crime covered by the 5
headings, and the types of incidents that may be recorded as
anti-social behaviour. This is not an exhaustive list as there are
many thousands of offence wordings.
This category includes:
- Burglary of a dwelling
- Burglary of a non-dwelling.
Examples of non-dwellings are sheds, commercial premises, social
clubs etc.
- Antisocial behaviour is any aggressive, intimidating or
destructive activity that damages or destroys another person's
quality of life.
Examples of ASB are unruly behaviour, littering, unreasonable
noise, public urination etc.
This category includes:
- Theft directly from a person with violence
- or the fear of violence used to complete the theft.
This category includes:
- Theft of a vehicle
- Theft from a vehicle.
This category includes:
- Violence against the person.
This consists of crimes committed with violence or the fear of
violence excluding robbery or sexual offences.
This category includes:
This covers a wide variety of offences, examples include:
- criminal damage
- drugs offences, fraud & forgery
- sexual offences
- dangerous driving
- bigamy
- health & safety offences
- planning offences
If you have concerns or a complaint about how crime/incident
data has been displayed on the Street Level Crime website, you can
in the first instance contact your local Safer Neighbourhood Team.
However, if you are still unhappy you can contact the Data
Protection Office, as follows:
Data Protection Officer
Police Headquarters
Martlesham Heath
Ipswich,
Suffolk,
IP5 3QS
E-mail: DataProtection@suffolk.pnn.police.uk
Tel: 01473 613500
Listen to this page