Details of the initiative were announced by home secretary Jacqui Smith as part of the Policing Green Paper, which has a strong focus on giving the public more information about local crime and policing.
The maps will be available on police websites and show where and when crimes are committed, down to type of offence and street location.
The measure, which has been welcomed by the Association of Chief Police Officers, will help the public make comparisons between areas and make local policing more accountable, according to Smith.
By rolling out up-to-date, interactive crime maps we can better inform people about crime problems in their area and enable them to have much more of a say in what their local police focus on, she said.
However, research released by Cardiff University’s Violence Research Group earlier this month suggested information on the maps, which is based on reported crime, may not offer a true picture of local crime as many knife attacks and violent assaults are unreported.
The group has called for accident and emergency departments to make information about such unreported attacks more widely available.
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