First of all, let me start by saying it is a truly great achievement of the Home Office to release crime data for 3rd party developers. We are really leading the world in this one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Secondly, it is unrealistic to expect the release of such a huge dataset to be an entirely frictionless affair. Such a huge amount of data needs time to settle down and we have seen some improvements since the very early days of 5 months ago.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thirdly, caveats aside, there is huge room for improvement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here’s what I would suggest for starters;<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
i) Create a forum where third party developers can communicate two ways with the API provider<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ii) Create historical time-stamped access to all the different APIs of the past. At the moment there is just one which is over-written<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
iii) Give each Police Force access to the API so that they can check it matches what they have on crimemapper and sign it off each month. I’ve had a couple of emails (which I always welcome) from very conscientious Officers pointing out that their data on crimemapper does not match what’s on our website. But we have no way of knowing that – we only see the API and have to use it on trust, although we have noticed errors ourselves informed – or asked them to inform – the API supplier and these have been corrected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
iv) Releae the API only once a month on an announced date rather than at at random, non-communicated intervals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
v) Look at how to release the API more quickly. Today is the 24th June and we are still waiting for May 2011.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
vi) Neighbourhood boundaries – I still don’t understand why these can’t be released and why they are only available to www.police.uk<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
vii) Try and get some monthly data from Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That’s it for now. I could go on but this would be a great start.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The main point is to anticipate and welcome evolution in the provision of crime data. But without a framework which brings people together, to openly dissent, debate and discuss, it won’t happen, much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First of all, let me start by saying it is a truly great achievement of the Home Office to release crime data for 3rd party developers. We are really leading the world in this one. Secondly, it is unrealistic … Continue reading