How to read street-level crime data without drawing the wrong conclusion
The dots are useful, but they are not exact addresses and they are not a complete measure of victimisation.
Learn how to interpret anonymised street-level crime map points, source months, outcomes and reporting gaps without treating them as exact addresses.
What one map point means
Read it as an area marker
The source moves incident coordinates to nearby anonymous map points to protect privacy. Several records can therefore share a point, and the marker must never be described as the exact scene or attached to a household.
Use the UK crime map to inspect the underlying fields, and keep the visible source month beside any screenshot or comparison.
Why the newest month is not this month
Check the source month
Forces submit extracts which are processed and published later. The site's dataset date is displayed separately from the date it was fetched so freshness is never overstated.
Recorded crime is not all crime
Know what the count leaves out
A police record depends on an incident being reported and recorded. The Crime Survey for England and Wales captures experiences that may never reach police systems, while also excluding some populations and offences.
Use rates and context for comparisons
Match the denominator to the question
Raw counts partly measure the number of residents, visitors and opportunities in an area. Meaningful comparison needs a suitable population denominator, the same time window, matching offence definitions and an explanation of boundary effects.
A worked reading of one marker
Say only what the fields support
Suppose a marker shows burglary, March 2026, an approximate street label and no published outcome. You can say that a burglary record was published for that month at a privacy-protected point. You cannot identify the property, incident day, victim or suspect, and the missing outcome does not mean that nothing happened. This distinction keeps a useful local observation from becoming an unsupported claim.
Quick checklist
Check these points before you publish a comparison
- Name the offence group and source month shown on the record.
- Call the point approximate and privacy-protected.
- Do not infer an exact address, person, incident day or unreported event.
Sources and further reading
- Official police-data API documentation - Fields, endpoints and data behaviour.
- ONS user guide to crime statistics - Source strengths and limitations.
- ONS crime and justice publications - Current bulletins and tables.
This guide explains statistics, not individual safety or legal liability. We update source links when official methodology changes.
Continue with a related crime-data guide
- Police-recorded crime vs the Crime Survey: Which number should you use? - Compare street-level records, police-recorded crime and the Crime Survey for England and Wales, including what each source measures and omits.
- How to compare local crime rates responsibly - Use this practical checklist to compare UK area crime rates by offence, period, population and coverage without mistaking record counts for personal risk.