The capital’s residents will be able to see complete robbery, burglary and car crime statistics for their neighbourhoods for the first time on a new website launched today.

The site which uses Metropolitan Police statistics, also compares levels of crime between the boroughs of London.

The information is more detailed than crime maps which have been used in other parts of Britain, as the website shows groups of about six streets together.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who announced the scheme today, had hoped it could be even more detailed and contain street by street information. However he was unable to be so specific due to concerns about privacy.

When Mr Johnson first proposed street by street crime maps, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said that the release of detailed information about crime could lead to concern about security for those people living in the area.

A spokeswoman said at the time: “There is a risk that revealing exactly where a particular crime took place could lead to the identification of victims who may wish to remain anonymous. There is a need to balance the intended benefits of releasing such information against the potential intrusion or concern this might cause individuals.”

By increasing the number of houses in each group, Mr Johnson claims that these issues have been overcome

Crime mapping was a key plank of Mr Johnson’s campaign for the mayoralty and he said today that it was an “important part” of the strategy to tackle crime and safety issues.

Mr Johnson said: “This is a major step forward in enabling Londoners to really be able to assess the work of their local police in tackling the crimes that affect their neighbourhood.

The announcement came as police arrested a teenager in connection with the stabbing of Shaquille Smith, 14.

Shaquille became the 25th teenager to be murdered in the capital this year when he was stabbed in the stomach in St Thomas’s Place in Hackney, East London, on Saturday.

His sister, Tahira, 16, also suffered knife wounds in the attack and needed hospital treatment.

Residents described seeing a group of around 15 youths on bikes ride up and attack Shaquille as he sat on a bench in a small park in front of his house.

The Metropolitan Police said they arrested a male in his late teens in East London in the early hours of this morning.

On Monday, friends of Shaquille claimed he had been the innocent victim of a long-running gang war.

London’s crime maps will not include statistics of violence, such as knifings, or of other crimes, however Mr Johnson said that they could be included in future.

He said he thought the site would be “hugely beneficial” and help reduce crime by putting public pressure on the police.

Speaking at a press conference in City Hall he said: “What we want to see is Londoners feeling that if they experience crime that it matters. That it is not going to be lost in some great welter of statistics, that it’s going to be recorded on the spot where it happened, that it’s going to be publicly available and there’s going to be pressure on the police to do something about it.”

Sir Paul Stephenson, Deputy Commissioner of the Met Police, said there was a “growing and understandable appetite” from Londoners about crime statistics.

"We have found that in some cases Londoners’ perception of crime is higher than the reality and the crime maps may help to reassure communities about the general safety of their local area."

The website went live today and provides a set of interactive maps, showing numbers and rates of crime, and links to other sites including Safer Neighbourhoods Team web pages.

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