Meet Safetymapper from Locket – a free, interactive tool to monitor crime where you live, work or play!
Locket is a hybrid technology and home insurance provider from London. We’re all about giving people ways to actively protect their home and family, as well as insuring them. You can read more about our proactive, protective blend of insurance and smart technology in our previous article on Coverager.
This update, however, is about a specific feature – one that’s free for everyone to use, whether you’re a Locket member or not!
Safetymapper is a new service from Locket that lets you view detailed crime stats for most of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Enter a postcode, and we’ll scrape the police database for detailed information about the number and types of crime reported there, right down to street level. Our goal is to give you factual information about the risks and potential hotspots in your area – from there, you can access our evidence-based guides on how to avoid becoming a victim, written by expert security researchers and even reformed burglars themselves.
Thinking of buying a new home? Search the postcode before you commit, and get the facts on how safe (or otherwise) your new neighbourhood would really be. Check out your home, your place of work, or get the lowdown on an unfamiliar part of town before you visit. Safetymapper is free, open to all, and uses official police data to give you an unbiased, birds-eye view.
This first release is a beta version – meaning the functionality is quite basic, and not all postcodes are available just yet. But in the future, we’re hoping to expand it with all sorts of useful features. One idea is to make it context-aware – so, you could save your home postcode, and we’ll alert you if there’s an increase in crime in your area. “It looks like bike theft is up 65% in your area this summer – here are the key hotspots to be aware of. Here’s a guide on how to stay safe, written by a reformed bike thief”.
Locket members also get special rates on protective technology from our partners, so we might offer our members a deep discount on an ultra-secure bike lock or a GPS tracker to go with it. We use a gamified, behavioural-economics model where Locket members also get rewarded with extra perks and discounts every time they set up a new protective device.
Another future idea – although we can’t be sure if it’s possible just yet – is to use the street-level data to assist you in choosing the safest path back from a night out, or an unfamiliar part of town.
We’re always looking for new, technology and data-driven ways to help people protect the places and people they love. If you’d like to give it a spin, grab the latest version of the free Locket app for iPhone or Android and enter any postcode in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
All the best, and thanks for reading!
