How the data works

In short

• Crime figures come from Police.uk, the official open crime data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus British Transport Police for the whole railway.
• Two forces, two figures. The local police force covers the streets around a station; British Transport Police (BTP) covers the railway. They are shown side by side, never silently added together.
• Gaps are shown as gaps. When a force did not publish data for a month, the site says “not available” and explains why. It never shows a missing month as zero or fills it in with an estimate.
• Locations are approximate. Police.uk moves each crime to a nearby point to protect privacy, so the map shows areas, not exact spots.
• Forecasts are tested before they are trusted. The “expected vs recorded” view works out each month's expected range using only the months before it, and shows how often recent months actually fell inside that range. A month outside the range is unusual compared with the past – not proof of a cause.
• Live train times come straight from National Rail and are not stored; they are only true for that minute.
• New stations load themselves. The first time a station is viewed, the site fetches and stores its data in the background, using the same checks and records as every other load.
• Context, not causes. Passenger numbers and census data help put crime in context. They do not explain why crime happens, and the census describes people who live nearby, not who is involved in crime.