New police crime map website crashes
A new Home Office Crime map website crashed this morning after the site logged over 4m visits, and up to 75,000 hits a second within hours of being launched.
Developed by Rock Kitchen Harris in Leicester, the new £300,000 website – www.police.uk – is designed to allow the public to see how many crimes, and what sort of crimes, have been committed within specific postcodes in England and Wales.
It is hoped this will allow the public to hold newly elected police authorities to account. However, the launch received blanket media coverage this morning, as newspapers sought to identify the worst areas for specific crimes – fuelling fears the project will stigmatise specific areas and lead to an increased fear of crime.
The hall of shame included three northern towns. The worst street for all crime; Preston's Glover Street, for anti-social behaviour; Newcastle's Newgate Street, for burglary; Bury's Fairfield Street and violence; Portsmouth's Guildhall Walk.
The leverage of coverage drove led to higher than anticipated traffic to the website.