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Cornwall Crime Explorer: Help & Tutorials
Sections:
Overview of the Crime Explorer
The Cornwall Crime Explorer is an interactive page that presents crime related information for all wards in Cornwall using multiple information windows presented on one page. At the top of the page an information window presents patterns of crime as a shaded map for all 121 wards in Cornwall. High levels of crime are depicted in red. Click on any Ward to display its crime profile in the lower window as a table. This profile table provides a summary across a number of a number of key crime types like 'Theft' or 'Domestic Burglary'. If you want to understand these crime types in more detail please read our Notes page.
To understand how to use the Crime Explorer in more detail try the online tutorials below.
Online tutorials for using the Crime Explorer
We would first recommend you understand how the Crime Explorer was developed and the data that is used. Please read our Crime Explorer Notes for this information.
- How do I find my area of interest to view crime information? View tutorial* Duration: 2 min
- How do I use the interactive map to explore other areas? View tutorial* Duration: 3 min
- How do I find out how crime is changing over time? View tutorial* Duration: 1 min 30 sec
- How can I better understand the data that supports the Crime Explorer and then download it for use offline? View tutorial* Duration: 2 min 15 sec
* Viewing tutorials requires you to have installed the Adobe Flash Player - in the unlikely event you need to download it, see the link at the bottom of this page.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the main benefits of publishing crime data in this way?
- Key benefits include: Providing more information to communities about crime in their local area;
- Enabling better engagement between members of community safety partnerships and local citizens; and
- Encouraging and enabling citizens to actively contribute and/or be involved in making their neighbourhood safer.
Can I identify how many separate burglaries, robberies or vehicle crimes have occurred in a specific area?
Yes, the number of crimes are shown in the table in the bottom half of the Crime Explorer page. Does Amethyst intend to publish other types of data in the future? Amethyst have plans to add related datasets to the Crime Explorer in the future that provide a wider content to crime levels. Please tell us what you'd like to see by using the feedback link at the bottom of this page.
What do the different colours mean on the map?
Wards of Cornwall are colour coded to show crime levels relative to all Wards in Cornwall. So, wards that have ‘High’ levels of Domestic Burglary are high in relation to all wards in Cornwall but not all wards nationally in England. Overall crime levels in Cornwall are generally relatively low in relation to other areas in England. The colours chosen (pale yellow to orange to red) reflect the level of crime – pale yellow indicates the lowest levels of any crime while darker red indicates the highest levels. We have created 5 classes which we have graded from A (lowest level) to E (highest level). The classification is based on splitting all the values for a crime type into 5 equal 20% chunks. This is known statistically as a quintile classification.
The Cornwall Crime Explorer doesn't seem to open correctly in my browser?
If you click on the link to Open the Crime Explorer a new browser window should open and the Explorer should load and open. If this does not happen the most likely cause of the problem is that you do not have the Adobe Flash Player loaded on your computer. This is a free software package that is widely used to view web content for Adobe Flash. You can download it for free from the Adobe Flash Player web site.
Most organisations now support Flash content for staff. If you have this problem and are working within an organisations that, for security reasons, does not allow you to download software from external web sites then we suggest you talk to your IT Department about allowing you to view Flash content through your web browser.
Even if you are unable to open the Crime Explorer you can still view the data used by the application in table form or, alternatively, you can download all the data into a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel.
Why does it take along time to open the Crime Explorer on my computer?
The Crime Explorer may take a minute or two to open if you do not have a broadband connection to the Internet. It can also be slower on relatively old computers. Speed of opening is a function of Internet bandwidth and the speed and memory capability of your computer.
How frequently is the Cornwall Crime Explorer updated?
The Cornwall Crime Explorer is updated every 3 months (or quarter) with new recorded crime data. This includes the total number of crime incidents and the crime rate (based on the latest resident population figures for each ward) for a number of types of crime. The crime type figures for each ward are aggregated for the 3 month period. The quarters used are January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December. We aim to update the Crime Explorer with the latest quarter of data within 4 weeks of the start of the following quarter.
What do the different types of crime numbers mean?
When looking at wards in Cornwall the specific crime rate is shown as a rate of that crime per 1,000 head of population during the specific reporting period. Where possible the actual crime numbers is also shown so that a user can see how many crimes of that type have been recorded in the ward.
Does Devon & Cornwall Police have a separate crime mapping site for publication of recorded crime statistics?
Yes they do. This was launched in January 2009 and presents data for the whole Devon and Cornwall Police area. It does not use Wards as their lowest level geography. The levels of crime are relative to the whole Devon and Cornwall police area unlike the Amethyst site which just focuses on Cornwall. It is available at http://maps.devon-cornwall.police.uk/.
Has the Information Commissioners Office been consulted in respect of public crime mapping applications?
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has provided guidance to police forces and others on how to publish crime information whilst ensuring there are sufficient safeguards in terms of protecting the identity of victims of crime in relation to burglary, robbery and vehicle crime.
In the USA crimes are published at street level and to a "point of occurrence". Why can't we do the same?
In the UK organisations are bound by the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act. We are not allowed to publish data that may inadvertently identify a living individual with that data; to do so would be in direct contravention of these Acts. These acts ensure that individuals and victims physical safety and emotional well-being are protected.
Please email us if you have any questions or comments about the Cornwall Crime Explorer. We welcome your feedback so we can improve our service to you.
The Cornwall Crime Explorer uses InstantAtlas - for other crime and safety examples see the InstantAtlas Crime Resource Pack