UK Police Recorded Crime Data by Police Force Area, 2002-2012

UK police recorded crime figures for police force areas, presented as rolling 12-month totals. The Home Office data covers periods from the financial year 2002/03 to quarterly data from June 2007, with publication responsibility transferring to the Office for National Statistics from April 2012. The tables are broken down by Community Safety Partnership, quarterly period, and individual offence code.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term crime trends based on rolling 12-month totals mentioned in the description
• Comparing crime rates across different Community Safety Partnerships as indicated in the data tables
• Modeling seasonal or quarterly variations in crime based on the shift to quarterly reporting from June 2007
• Studying changes in specific offence categories based on the individual offence code breakdown

Strengths

• Provides a consistent time series from the financial year 2002/03 through quarterly data from June 2007
• Includes breakdowns by multiple dimensions: police force area, Community Safety Partnership, quarterly period, and offence code
• Published under the OGL-UK-3.0 license, permitting open use and redistribution

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data may reflect reporting and recording biases inherent to police administrative systems

Provenance

Source

Home Office, with publication transitioning to the Office for National Statistics from April 2012

Collection Method

Administrative records from police force areas

Time Range

Financial years 2002/03 to 2006/07, and quarterly from June 2007 onward

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:06.687199; freshness should be verified

Geography

Police force areas within the United Kingdom