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Tackling anti-social behaviour

17 June 2005

As part of UCL's commitment to working with the local community, Ms Sonja Curtis and Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith from CASA have joined forces with the Bloomsbury Improvement Group and Camden Police, to develop a website which will enable the Bloomsbury community to log crime in the area.

Community Alert

The Community Alert project will help improve the quality of life for residents, workers, tourists and students in the area by providing an anonymous portal to report anti-social behaviour.

Users are able to report up to 21 different categories of crime on the site, ranging from abandoned vehicles and vandalism to drug dealing and threatening behaviour. The details of the crime, including the date, time and location are then passed on to the relevant authorities, who are then able to log and map the incident.

The system is much more cost-effective than GIS mapping techniques and can provide the police with vital information about crime in the area.

Commenting on the collaboration between UCL and members of the Bloomsbury community, Professor Mike Batty, Director of CASA said: "This is very much a bottom-up project which is made possible by the unique constellation of academic and community interests here."

Due to the success of the project the team are already working on a similar site in Richmond and it is envisaged that more boroughs will implement the scheme.