This is the second post in our mini-series of sites set-up to counter pickpocketing in our cities. Yesterday we covered “Robbery Maps“. Today, let’s look at “PickPocketMap“.
The website compares other pickpocket hotspots, such as London, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Prague and compares and contrasts them by showing the increase or decrease in reported incidents in those cities over the past two to four weeks. Interestingly, Barcelona is currently showing a 15% drop, the only city actually recording an improvement. *Shock*
Additions to the site are contributed by those who have themselves been a victim of a crime.
We had a question and answer session with the founders (who like us, remain anonymous), and here’s what we discovered:
How did you guys start, and what’s the objective?
The site was started as a result of my wife and I being robbed in Paris while on vacation last summer. We had been to Barcelona the year before last, and knowing what we know now, I wonder how we didn’t get robbed there! Anyway, I guess you live you learn… we love both places and do want to go back some day. We are based in the New York area in the US. The main purpose of the site is twofold: 1. To make travelers and locals more aware of how to enjoy these and other cities safely and without the hassle of theft 2. To prompt local authorities in these cities to be more proactive in trying to curb these petty thefts. We think it can be done, for example New York gets millions of tourists every year and pickpocket/theft levels are quite low.
How do you go about achieving this?
We provide:
1. The ability to manually enter pickpocket and theft details as well as an automated Twitter parser to update the site with these types of incidents.
2. A map to show the cities affected and how they stack up relatively.
3. Trend analysis on the home page on how the city is performing on a short and a longer term basis.
4. Charts to show the trends over time and type of item being stolen.
5. A blog where we write articles of importance to travelers.
6. A twitter feed for announcements and tips.
What’s next for you?
In the near term we hope travelers and authorities involved with the Olympics 2012 in London use our site to be aware of past and current conditions in London.
PickPocketMap are active on Twitter, here. Meanwhile, their website can be seen here.
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London first ? Paris second ? This must be a joke.
In a week in Barcelona, I saw more pickpockets in action than in Paris for a year.