Stephen Metcalfe, local MP for South Basildon and East
Thurrock, welcomes a new online tool which allows local people to check on the
safety of their estate, village, or route to work. Users can make their own
personalised crime maps on the Government website ‘Police.uk’.
The new ‘Draw Your Own Area’ function celebrates the
two-year anniversary of the successful Police.uk website. Since its launch the
service has received 548 million hits with an average of over 365,000 a day in
the last month alone.
‘Draw Your Own Area’ means visitors will for the first
time be able to plot on a map the precise area for which they want information
on crime, anti-social behaviour and outcomes, rather than relying on a standard
one mile radius from a given postcode.
Welcoming the new tool, Mr Metcalfe said: “’Police.uk’ is
a great resource. It has proved very popular with users locally and across the
country, with hundreds of millions of hits since its launch. These new features
mean local people in South Basildon and East Thurrock will have even more
information at their fingertips about crime in our area. It means we can all
hold the police and our Police and Crime Commissioner to account to ensure we
keep driving crime down.”
Conservative Police and Criminal Justice Minister Damian
Green MP added: “Crime maps have been a phenomenal success with over 548
million hits on ‘Police.uk’ since its launch two years ago. There is a huge
appetite for transparency and information across the Criminal Justice System
and we are responding by enhancing the information provided on ‘Police.uk.”
