The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today (21 October) launched a new online, interactive dashboard, making it easier for Londoners to see what is happening with crime in their area and how well their local police are performing.
Last year the Mayor, as part of his Police and Crime Plan, pledged even greater transparency over crime data and set the Metropolitan Police Service the challenge to reduce seven key neighbourhood crimes by 20 per cent by 2016.
Using this interactive dashboard Londoners are now able to track progress against this target, compare local performance every month to other boroughs and look at the overall crime picture in the capital.
Part of the Mayor's ongoing commitment to make police data more user-friendly, the 'Crime Dashboard' - the first in a series of dashboards to be launched in the coming months - takes raw data already available on other sites and transforms it into easy-to-understand charts showing crime performance in all 32 London boroughs.
The dashboard reveals that on the latest monthly figures, the Met have cut MOPAC 7 crimes overall by 18 per cent against the 2012 baseline - against a target of 20 per cent by 2016. It also shows the impact falling crime in London has had on national figures with the crime drop last year in the capital outpacing the national fall and accounting for almost half of the reduction across England and Wales.
For the first time the data reveals that crime nationally would be rising by 0.4 per cent were it not for the strong Met performance.
Speaking at the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime's (MOPAC) monthly Challenge Board meeting, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: 'London is one of the safest big cities in the world and crime is falling year after year. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for Londoners to see exactly what that means for their area so they can feel even greater confidence in the work of the police. By taking what can be a dense labyrinth of data and transforming it into something clear and concise you can now track crime levels close to home and see how their local police respond. We know there are challenges and that this dashboard does not paint a perfect picture but progress is being made and working together with the Met police we are confident we can bring crime down even further.'
The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Stephen Greenhalgh said: 'We challenged the Met to drive down crime by 20 per cent and they have more than risen to the challenge, with many boroughs having already exceeded this target more than a year early. This dashboard makes it easier for people to see crime data in one place and it clearly shows that while boroughs are much safer than two years ago, others have more work to do. By shining a spotlight on local performance, we hope the public will understand more about the real facts about crime in London.'
Helen King, Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing, said: 'It is important that the public understands the progress we are making in reducing crime in London and welcome this initiative by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime.
'I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our officers, partners and the public for all their hard work and support which has enabled us to make London one of the safest capitals in the world.'
To view the crime dashboard visit www.london.gov.uk/mopac-data.
Notes to editors
1. MOPAC is committed to ensuring that London and Londoners have access to information on policing and crime so that they can see how well the police are performing.
2. The data used to create the Crime Dashboard is available in its raw format on several sites including the Metropolitan Police website, and the London Datastore.
3. MOPAC 7 neighbourhood crimes. The Mayor's aim is to drive down crime by at least 20 per cent in seven key categories: burglary; vandalism/criminal damage; theft from motor vehicles; theft of motor vehicles; violence with injury, robbery; and theft from the person. These crime types are all victim-based offences, which MOPAC has identified because they are high volume, have sizeable impact on Londoners and are clearly understood by the public.
4. For more information about MOPAC please go to www.london.gov.uk/policing.