The availability of detailed and geographically precise crime data also aids the analysis and evaluation of challenging crime analysis. The profile of data needs to be raised, with good case studies demonstrating the business case for improving the address or geographic details that are entered into a crime report. The heavy focus on postcodes for geographic referencing for the purpose of generating good information for crime analysis should though be treated as a temporary fix. Postcodes are property specific and can cause difficulties when attempting to geographically reference crimes that occur at non-addressable locations such as car parks. Postcodes are rarely coterminous with ward, parish, district or other boundaries.
Postcodes are subject to incorrect manual data input.
The SIG welcomes the foresight to reference crime data against a standard geographic referencing system. However, a step towards this would be for forces to begin to collect their data against the BS 7666 geographical referencing standard for land parcels and properties. There is at present significant progress being made in a standard geographical referencing framework. This includes the creation of a National Land and Property Gazetteer, the Ordnance Survey Digital National Framework and the National Land Information Service. GPS is being demonstrated in a number of US cities as an approach for the accurate geographic recording of offences where the scene of the crime is visited.