Frequently Asked Questions

What are all the Crime Types?

MyNeighbourhood.info uses all crime that has been reported to and recorded by West Midlands Police during the time period as described on the screen.

It is not possible to view all the different crime types separately so MyNeighbourhood.info takes all the recorded crimes and groups them into the following 11 categories:

Residential Burglary

Entering or attempting to enter a residential property with the intention of stealing, damaging property or causing harm.

Non-Residential Burglary

A burglary in a building other than a residential property. This could include garden sheds, commercial property or garages (not integral to a house).

Criminal Damage

Criminal damage refers to crimes where any person without lawful excuse intentionally or recklessly destroys or damages any property belonging to another.

Wounding

An injury in which the skin is visibly torn, pierced, cut, or otherwise broken.

Assault

An unlawful physical attack upon another person with the intention of causing injury.

Robbery (Person)

The use of violence or intimidation in the theft or attempted theft of property from a person.

Theft from Person

The theft of property from a person without the use of violence or intimidation.

Robbery (Business)

The unlawful entry into business premises with the intention to steal or cause damage to the premises or people within the premises.

Theft of Motor Vehicle

The attempted or actual unlawful taking of a vehicle (e.g. car, motorbike)

Theft from Motor Vehicle

The attempted or actual theft of property taken from a vehicle (e.g. car, motorbike).

Other Crime

This category takes into account a wide range of other crimes that are not included in any of the other sub-categories.

What is anti-social behaviour (ASB)?

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) covers a wide spectrum of activities from neighbour disputes to criminal behaviour and it is difficult to come up with a single complete definition. For the purposes of this site, ASB is defined using the Home Office National Standards for Incident Recording (NSIR) classification scheme. The following classifications are used:

Rowdy, Nuisance and Inconsiderate Behaviour (RNIB).

This category covers a wide range of incident types. In order to give a better understanding of the types of RNIB that effect your neighbourhood, this category is further split into 4 sub-categories, namely:

Youth

With a youth related marker (but no alcohol marker).

Alcohol

An alcohol marker (but no youth marker)

Alcohol and Youth

With both an alcohol AND a youth marker

Other

All other categories of rowdy, nuisance and inconsiderate behaviour

Rowdy neighbours

Reports of rowdy behaviour and general nuisance which fall short of notifiable crime. This will include:

• Nuisance neighbours
• Neighbourly disputes (e.g. over boundaries, parking, etc.)
• Noisy neighbours (inc. noisy parties, playing loud music, etc.)

This does not include complaints about noise from 'raves' or businesses; these are included under ASB ‘Noise’.

Vehicle nuisance

This category is intended to capture vehicle related incidents that are perceived to be anti-social and nuisance caused by behaviour associated with vehicle usage that is not recorded elsewhere, either under ‘Transport’ or ‘Crime’.

Inappropriate Vehicle Use will include:

• Nuisance caused by vehicles being repaired on the highway
• Vehicle parking related nuisance

Vehicle Nuisance will include:

• Street cruising: parading up and down same street for no apparent reason to the annoyance and bother of other road users, residents, etc.
• Vehicle meetings, large numbers of vehicle in convoys and other associated behaviour, e.g. handbrake turns. (N.B. Dangerous Driving is a notifiable crime.)
• Riding / driving on land other than on a road.
• Misuse of Go-Peds, motorised skateboards and electric pedal cycles.
• Carrying out ‘restricted works’ on a vehicle on a road. (‘Restricted works’ are repair, maintenance, servicing, improvement or dismantling, but do not include repairs from an accident or breakdown that are carried out within 72 hours of the incident).
• An unlicensed dealer exposing 2 or more vehicles for sale on the same road or within 500 metres of each other.

Hoax Calls

False calls made to emergency services.

Calls that convey information that is false and is known or believed to be false for the purpose of causing distress, anxiety or the wasteful misdirection of emergency services. In this context “Emergency Services” includes Coast Guards, Mountain Rescue, Mines Rescue, etc.

Other ASB including:

This group covers a number of other categories including:

• abandoned vehicles
• animal problems
• begging/vagrancy
• inappropriate sale, use or possession of fireworks
• malicious / nuisance communications
• noise
• prostitution related activity
• littering
• street drinking
• trespass

Why is anti-social behaviour data only available for 12months?

Anti-social behaviour is categorised to national Home Office guidelines. These guidelines have recently changed and therefore it is not possible to produce consistent figures for more than 12 months. The “Compare Months” and “Change Map” pages will be updated when 24 months of data become available in December 2009.

Why can’t MyNeighbourhood find my postcode?

MyNeighbourhood.info uses a set of postcodes supplied by the Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey. If your postcode is not on that list then MyNeighbourhood will not be able to find your chosen neighbourhood using this method. Alternatively you may wish to use the street name or map search options.

If you have recently moved into a new house with a new postcode, it can sometimes take a number of months before that new postcode is included on the database used by MyNeighbourhood.info.

You should also be careful to type in the full postcode eg WV14 8EQ. Please note that some postcodes use a zero in the second part of the postcode. For example B12 0YY includes a zero rather than a letter “O”.

MyNeighbourhood.info covers crimes within the West Midlands Police area. This includes the Local Authority areas of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. It is possible that postcodes with starting with “B”, “CV”, “DY”, “WS” or “WV” are located outside of West Midlands Police Force area.

What is a Local Authority?

There are 7 Local Authorities within the West Midlands Police area, Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. These are the council areas providing a number of local services. Each council has a Community Safety Partnership, responsible for Crime and Disorder issues within their area.

What is a Local Policing Unit(LPU).

There are 10 LPUs covering the West Midlands Police area. Each LPU has a management team headed by a Chief Superintendent responsible for policing that area on a day to day basis.

There are 4 LPUs covering Birmingham City Council area and another 6 each covering the other Local Authorities of Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

What is a Police Neighbourhood?

Police neighbourhoods were created after consultation with the public to define local areas and communities. Although neighbourhoods may differ in size and characteristics, each has it’s own neighbourhood policing team and local priorities.

What is a Census Output Area (COA)?

A census output area (COA) is a nationally recognised administrative area commonly used for the distribution and analysis of 2001 census data. MyNeighbourhood.info uses these areas to highlight levels of crime within the larger neighbourhood boundary.

How can I find my neighbourhood?

MyNeighbourhood.info has 4 different methods of finding your chosen neighbourhood. You can search by typing in your postcode, street name or police neighbourhood. Alternatively you can click on the Map Search option and search through the maps to find your chosen neighbourhood.

How do I contact my Local Neighbourhood Police Officer?

Once you have found your chosen neighbourhood, there is a “Meet the Local Team” link at the bottom of each page. Click on this link and the West Midlands Police’s website will open giving you details of your local neighbourhood team, contact details, dates of your next local neighbourhood meeting, priorities from the last meeting and any actions taken.

How often is MyNeighbourhood.info updated?

MyNeighbourhood is updated every month using data from West Midlands Police crime recording system.

Data is usually uploaded to MyNeighbourhood.info within 3 weeks from the end of the month. For example September data will be available by the 3rd week of October.

How accurate is the Data on the Maps?

Crime locations are taken from West Midlands Police crime recording system, which automatically allocates a location to each crime based on a description of where the offence took place. For some crimes, such as street robbery where the exact location can not be pinpointed, an approximate location is used. This can sometimes result in several offences being allocated to the same general location causing some areas to show a higher number of crimes than is actually the case. This will effect the hotspots shown for certain “street based” crime types shown on MyNeighbourhood.info.

Why do the Maps Run Slowly on my Computer?

This website displays a lot of information on the map, so the speed depends on the computer that you are using and also the type of connection you have.