Observatory on BBC1 Politics Show

The Observatory’s State of the Region Report will feature on the regional section of the BBC’s Politics Show this Sunday (26th Oct 08). The programme starts at 12pm on BBC1. Hope you get chance to watch.

ADDED 28/10/08: The article can be viewed on the BBC’s iplayer. The Observatory features about 43 minutes in and will be available until next Sunday (02/11/08).

Crime mapping in the news

There have been a number of articles on the subject of crime mapping published in the Guardian’s Free our data blog over the last few weeks following Boris Johnson’s pledge to introduce crime mapping in London as part of his mayoral campaign.

The articles discuss the arguments for and against crime mapping and a couple look at the experience of the crime mapping in Chicago.

Here are links to some of those articles:

• Why the police are against crime mapping – and what it tells us
• The police and crime mapping
• BBC’s iPM looks at crime mapping in Chicago which refers to a BBC article Lessons from Chicago
• Crime mapping coming more widely

In our region, West Midlands police are already making crime maps publicly accessible through www.myneighbourhood.info, and the government appears set to make such maps available across England and Wales according to a recent BBC news article, Online maps to show local crime.