Frequently asked questions

Start free: open the crime map, search your postcode, and zoom in to see how many records police published nearby and what kinds. For a wider picture, browse the force area pages. If you want a documented summary you can save or share - for example while deciding on a house or a rental - order a neighbourhood report.

Three things: how busy the immediate area is compared with its surroundings (the map), whether it is getting better or worse over time (a 5-year report or the trends dashboard), and what kinds of records dominate - burglary and vehicle crime matter differently from town-centre anti-social behaviour. The free buying guide walks through this step by step.

A 12-month report is £9.99; a 5-year report is £19.99; a pack of five 5-year vouchers is £79.99. Each report is a PDF covering the 0.5 km around your postcode: the published record counts, category mix, comparisons with the wider police force area and England and Wales, and clear notes on what the data can and cannot tell you. Free sample PDFs show exactly what you receive before you pay.

Most reports are generated within a few minutes of payment. You get a status page and a report reference straight away, and an email link when the PDF is ready if you provided an address. Your reference reopens the download page any time via Find a report.

Because a report is a digital product supplied immediately, payments are non-refundable - this is stated at checkout. If your report fails to generate or something looks wrong with it, contact us via Help and feedback with your report reference and we will investigate.

No. You never need an account or subscription to use the site. Report orders give you a reference and secure link to check status and download the PDF.

No - and be wary of anything that claims to. We show the published police record and how it compares with nearby areas, clearly scoped and sourced. Whether that record is acceptable for your situation is your judgement; a “safety score” would just hide that judgement behind someone else’s formula.

A free site for exploring published UK street-crime and stop-and-search data from the official police data portal. Dashboards, maps, and articles stay free. Optional neighbourhood PDF reports help fund the service. See About.

Yes. Everything shown here comes from the official police data portal (data.police.uk), run by the Home Office. We reshape published records for search, maps, and summaries - we do not invent or alter the underlying incidents. Processing detail is on the methodology page.

CrimeMapsUK follows the published official police data portal extract for England and Wales police forces. Coverage depends on which months and forces have been loaded; current totals are on the about page.

No for the open site: dashboards, maps, and articles are free and will stay free. There is no subscription. Neighbourhood reports are an optional paid PDF for a documented postcode circle; the same underlying published data remains explorable without buying a report.

No. We present published counts and patterns. We do not rank neighbourhoods or label them as safe or unsafe, and we do not invent resident-based “crime scores”.

No. There is no advertising, no selling of user data, and no third-party tracking. Product analytics, where used, is self-hosted and cookie-free. See the privacy page.

A PDF scoped to a postcode with a documented radius, month window, and the same published crime data used on the site - with the same location and outcome caveats. See How to read a neighbourhood report, or order a report.

Every neighbourhood report uses a fixed 0.5 km radius around the geocoded postcode centre. That scope is printed in the PDF and cannot be changed per order.

The 12-month report answers “is the last year quiet or busy here?”. The 5-year report also answers “is that year typical?” - an area can look calm in one year and still be trending worse. For a one-off decision like a house purchase, most buyers pick the 5-year report. Compare the sample PDFs before choosing.

No. Street-crime records are recorded crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents published by police forces - not a log of every 999/101 call or every time an officer attended. Forces typically build the monthly file from Crime Management and Command and Control systems. A public report can become a record without a visit; a call-out does not always become a published crime or ASB record. See What is a street crime.

It is a published record of a stop-and-search encounter: when and roughly where it happened, the legislation and object of search, and the outcome of that search. See What is a stop and search record.

An outcome is the latest published status for a recorded crime - for example a charge, caution, local resolution, or that no suspect was identified. Outcomes can lag the original month and are not a full case file or a court verdict. See What is a crime outcome.

No. On CrimeMapsUK it is the share of loaded street-crime records with a police-recorded action outcome or local resolution in this dataset. It excludes many unresolved or no-further-action labels and is not a court conviction rate. Open How these figures are calculated on any dashboard for the exact definition used there.

It is the share of loaded stop-and-search records treated as a recorded find from the published outcome labels. It does not show whether a search was justified, proportionate, or effective.

Resident-normalised rates need an official, geometry-matched population denominator for the same areas being counted. CrimeMapsUK currently reports published record counts and descriptive shares within the selected filters, not population rates.

A territorial force covers a wide geography, often a county or metropolitan area, not a single neighbourhood. Force comparisons use that wider backdrop. Browse published totals on crime by police force area (for example Crime in London). See also What is a police force or constabulary.

StreetCheck was bought by CrystalRoof in March 2026. Typing streetcheck.co.uk now sends you there. CrimeMapsUK is not StreetCheck and does not replace every StreetCheck dataset, but the maps, dashboards, force pages, and articles here stay free. See What happened to StreetCheck.

Start with the free buying guide, the crime map, and a force area page. For a documented 0.5 km postcode circle, order a neighbourhood report. Conveyancing searches are separate from this site - see crime checks vs conveyancing searches.

Counts only include incidents that were reported and recorded as crime or ASB. Many offences never reach the police. Location anonymisation, force recording differences, seasonality, publication timing, and later reclassification can also change how an area appears. The Crime Survey for England and Wales covers crimes that never appear in police records.

No. Published coordinates are approximate by design - snapped to anonymous street or public points before release. That is why CrimeMapsUK uses hex grids rather than address pins. See How to interpret the hex maps.

Darker hexes mean more published records in that area for the selected month, relative to the other hexes in the current view. The scale is not a fixed national “danger” scale and is not a rate per resident. Click a hex for totals and breakdowns.

Zoomed out, hexes are larger (regional view). Zoomed in, they get finer so local shape is easier to see. A dark large hex can cover several streets - zoom in before treating it as a neighbourhood summary.

Crime Statistics and Stop and Search summarise a selected period; Trends shows change over the loaded history; Comparisons puts two selections side by side. See How to use the dashboards.

Crime Statistics and Stop and Search Statistics answer “what was recorded in these months?”. Trends answers “how have totals changed over the loaded history?”. Comparisons answers “how do two places or periods differ?”.

The latest loaded month is usually the most useful starting point. Use the filters to widen the range, pick one police force, or compare earlier months. Trends defaults to a longer window across the loaded history.

You choose two selections (each with its own force and month range). Presets cover common questions such as latest month vs previous month or one force vs all forces; Advanced lets you set any pair. Read the plain-English summary and paired cards before the charts. Blue/orange change charts mark lower vs higher in the second selection.

Yes. Use Download chart for a PNG of the current chart (with its title, the applied force/month filters, and a CrimeMapsUK watermark), and open View data table under a chart for the exact figures. On Trends you can also download the page’s underlying series as CSV.

Forces publish monthly releases on data.police.uk. CrimeMapsUK ingests those releases and rebuilds maps and summaries after each import. Current coverage dates are on the about page.

Use the help and feedback form. Your message is emailed to the CrimeMapsUK inbox; include a page URL and enough detail for us to investigate. This is a small project, so replies may take a few days.

Start with the articles, especially How to use the dashboards and How to interpret the hex maps. Processing choices and limits are on the methodology page.