On CrimeMapsUK, a police force (sometimes called a constabulary) is the territorial force that published a record to data.police.uk. When dashboards or reports talk about a force area, they mean that force’s geographic responsibility, not a single town or postcode.
England and Wales are covered by regional territorial forces. Force names usually point at the area: for example Avon and Somerset, West Midlands, or North Wales. The open data also includes some special cases such as the British Transport Police, which is organised around the rail network rather than a county map in the same way.
Why this matters on CrimeMapsUK
Force filters and force comparisons use the force field attached to published records. That is useful for asking “what did this force publish?”, but it is easy to over-read:
- a force area is usually much larger than a neighbourhood
- force boundaries are not the same as hexes on the map
- two very different places can sit inside one force
So a force total is a broad backdrop, not a street-level twin of your search.
Examples that often cause confusion
Greater London is not one force for every purpose. Most of Greater London is covered by the Metropolitan Police. The City of London Police covers the Square Mile separately. CrimeMapsUK’s Crime in London page uses Metropolitan Police totals and says so; it is not a single borough score. A report or dashboard comparison for a Camden postcode is typically set against the Metropolitan Police area as a whole, not against only the borough.
Large rural forces cover more than one county name in everyday speech. Devon and Cornwall Police covers both Devon and Cornwall. A postcode in Exeter is compared with that whole force area, which includes sparse rural places and other towns many miles away.
Metropolitan county forces are still wide. West Midlands Police covers the West Midlands metropolitan area (including places such as Birmingham, Coventry, and Wolverhampton). It is not “one neighbourhood type”. Busy centres and quieter suburbs share the same force backdrop.
How to check which force covers a place
If you are unsure which territorial force covers an address:
- use Find a police force on police.uk
- or inspect official force boundary downloads from data.police.uk boundaries
CrimeMapsUK does not redraw custom force maps for every page. It uses the force identity published with each record.