Online Crime Maps "More Useful to Criminals"

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had proposed an online crime map to show crime hotspots, and where police are being dispatched, in order to quell the public's fear of crime. An early version of the map is currently visible.

However, critics argue that such maps are more useful to criminals than to law-abiding citizens. Indeed, criminals could fire up the map and go to where the police aren't. (Of course, the map would presumably be controlled by the police, so no self-respecting criminal should trust it) 

A further knock-on effect of such a scheme would be real estate devaluation, which I didnt' think of at first. According to the map linked above, the crime rate in my old neighborhood (neighbourhood, I should say) is "below average". The guys who routinely threw each other through the chip shop window will be thrilled to hear that.