A CRIMINOLOGY expert has urged caution following the launch of a national website showing crime figures for every postcode in the country.

The site – www.police.uk – allows people to view crime statistics on a street-by-street basis for the whole of England and Wales.

It is the first time such detailed maps have been available for an entire country anywhere in the world.

But the site crashed on its first day as it attracted about 300,000 hits a minute.

Repeated attempts by the Examiner to access it yesterday were unsuccessful.

Alexander Hirschfield, director of Huddersfield University’s Applied Criminology Centre, was one of those who tried and failed to log on.

But he said any crime statistics needed to be looked at in context.

Prof Hirschfield said: “I don’t have a particular problem with the concept of information about social problems, crime and other issues being available to the public.

“The important thing when interpreting the statistics is that you take them in context.

“Even if a particular street shows high crime levels, that may still be an improvement on the previous year and it shouldn’t necessarily be a cause for alarm.

“Higher volumes of crime will often correspond with more densely populated areas.

“Using police data alone doesn’t tell you all about crime.”