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Topic
Reading police statistics without being fooled by them — a strand inspired by Radio 4's More or Less, paired with the live data explorer.
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Commercial crime rankings repeatedly put Worthing at or near the top for shoplifting. The recorded figures were real, but reporting changes, denominator choices and old data materially changed what they could tell us.
Compare Guardian police headlines with public confidence data, inspect the method and understand why the two trends cannot establish causation.
What studies of England matches reveal about alcohol, timing and recorded domestic abuse, and how police and partners could test their response.
BBC Radio 4's More or Less is useful professional development for anyone working with police data. Five habits matter most: check the denominator, definition, comparison, causal claim and your own instinct to believe the number.
Police statistics are easy to quote and easy to misread. Start with the numerator, denominator, definition and comparator — then ask what the data can actually establish. Stop and search shows why the method matters.
