How to find out crime rates?

hock79

My sister is looking at renting a flat with her bf and has found a really nice looking maisonette above the shops on the main high street in her town. Before she decides though, we'd like to find out about crime in the area. We know the area quite well, there are 2 pubs within a stones throw and a late-night tesco, so it is a busy road, and a typical hang-out for kids.

We could obviously drive past after pub closing a couple of nights and see what it's like then, but from a crime point of view, is there any way of finding out past crime statistics for a particular postcode? I've found websites where you can find out the crime rates for the borough/ward but that doesn't really help. One concern would be her car which would be parked in the car park behind the shops so if we could find out if any cars had ever been stolen/broken into in that postcode, that would be helpful to know.

ray123

You could try:

upmysteet.com
uklocalarea.co.uk

hock79

Hiya, I've tried both of those, but they give figures for the whole borough, which show crime as much higher than the national average. Obviously some areas in the borough are worse than others so it would be nice to find out more specific figures.

_Andy_

Not sure if it has the info you're after but you could try

http://data.gov.uk/data

kev1n3

You could try the Office for National Stats here
Then Navigate to Crime Mapping

poppysarah

Get insurance quotes. That'll give you an idea.

hock79

Thanks Kev, I can't seem to get the mapping bit to work though! I'll try again in Firefox...

Running_Horse

I would distrust crime figures and go for a drink in the pubs, followed by shopping in Tesco just before it closes. Talk to as many locals as possible, both night and day.

_Andy_

Also look out for England flags, shirtless youths, bottles of White Lightning etc.

mrcol1000

If you live in the wonderful north well to be more exact West Yorkshire you can get monthly updated crime data at
http://www.beatcrime.info/

You just put your postcode and it tells you the number of crimes per type in your area and even lets you see a map of the number different crimes by street! Parents in law found this very useful when looking to buy and avoided a bad area.
I think every police area should do this to this detial.

Also this website is useful

http://maps.police.uk/

kev1n3

hock79 wrote: »

Thanks Kev, I can't seem to get the mapping bit to work though! I'll try again in Firefox...

Insert you postcode, put a check the Authority box, then you will see Crime Mapping.