UK Crime Mapping March 2010 update includes API

UK Crime Mapping  March 2010 update includes API
+Reverse Geocoder "Nearest Police Station" 
+ Geocode Policing Team "Policing team that covers a given point"

Viewing the maps is now more useful with thematic classification including  Burglary, Robbery, Vehicle Crime, Violence, Anti-social behaviour.

Example shown above:

http://maps.police.uk/view/?ll=51.846383529034924,-2.13066101074218&z=10

There is now an Police API  note: an API key is required

The Police API allows you to retrieve information about neighbourhood areas in all 43 English & Welsh police forces. All forces are required to keep this data accurate and up to date, so the API provides a rich and definitive data source for information such as:

• Neighbourhood team members
• Upcoming events
• Crime levels & statistics
• Nearest police stations

"The API is implemented as a standard XML REST web service using HTTP GET/POST requests.

Code examples are provided, but you may need to tailor these to your language of choice. There are plenty of articles on how to make cURL requests with PHP, .NET, Python and others."

More information API 

http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/

Here is an example request:

http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/snippets/?q=woodstock

API Authentication http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/authentication/

XML request and response - http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/hello-world/

Nearest Police Station (Reverse Geocoder)
"Return a list of the nearest police stations from a text search query."
Search string, can be one of many things:

• Village/town/place name, e.g. Syston, Leicester
• Postcode, e.g. SW1H 0BG
• Latitude & Longitude, e.g. 51.487797,-0.234833

<police-api>
02        <request>
03            <key>{api_key}</key>
04            <function>nearest-police-station</function>
05            <parameters>
06                <q>hyde park, london</q>
07            </parameters>
08        </request>
09        <response>
10            <centre-point>
11                <latitude>51.503263</latitude>
12                <longitude>-0.150975</longitude>
13            </centre-point>
14            <stations>
15                <station>
16                    <distance>1.26</distance>
17                    <force-id>city-of-london</force-id>
18                    <name>Snowhill</name>
19                    <address></address>
20                    <postcode></postcode>

http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/nearest-police-station/

Geocode a policing team

Return the policing team that covers a given point location:

1    <police-api>
02        <request>
03            <key>{api_key}</key>
04            <function>geocode-team</function>
05            <parameters>
06                <q>stonehenge</q>
07            </parameters>
08        </request>
09        <response>
10            <centre-point>
11                <latitude>51.179025024176</latitude>
12                <longitude>-1.8274748325348</longitude>
13            </centre-point>
14            <team>
15                <force-id>wiltshire</force-id>
16                <team-id>EM11</team-id>
17            </team>
18        </response>
19        <error></error>
20    </police-api>

http://policeapi.rkh.co.uk/geocode-crime-area/