# UK Police Crime Data Scraper (`parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes UK Police crime data from data.police.uk. Returns street-level crimes, stop-and-search records, forces, or neighbourhoods as flat rows.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Other, Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 90.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $7.49 / 1,000 result items

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner.jpg)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### UK Police Crime Data Scraper

**Scrape UK Police crime data from any location, force, or month, up to a million records per run.** Every record comes with its category, location, and outcome status. No API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The UK Police data API gives you street-level crimes, stop-and-search records, forces, and neighbourhoods, but querying it means writing your own HTTP client and handling pagination. This Actor reads the public data.police.uk endpoints directly, filtered by location, date, category, or force, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

| Who uses it | What they scrape UK Police for |
|---|---|
| Journalists | Which crime categories are rising in a specific neighbourhood this month |
| Researchers | Comparing stop-and-search rates across different police forces |
| Local councils | Monitoring crime trends around a planned development site |
| Data analysts | Building a time series of burglaries for a city over several months |

### What it does

This Actor collects UK Police crime records by location, force, or month, and returns each one as a flat row.

- 📍 **Crimes at Location:** street-level crimes within a radius of a latitude and longitude, filtered by month and category.
- 🔍 **Stop & Search by Force:** stop-and-search records for a specific police force and month.
- 🏛️ **List Forces:** all UK police forces with their IDs and names.
- 🏘️ **List Neighbourhoods:** neighbourhoods within a specific police force.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

### What you can do with UK Police data

**📈 Track crime trends by month.**

A local newsroom runs the Actor for the same Leicester postcode each month and charts how burglary and violent crime counts change over the year.

**🗺️ Map incidents around a location.**

A neighbourhood watch group scrapes all crimes within 1 km of a community centre and plots them on a map to spot hotspots.

**⚖️ Compare stop-and-search across forces.**

A researcher pulls stop-and-search records for the Metropolitan and West Yorkshire forces for the same month and compares rates by ethnicity and outcome.

**🏛️ Build a directory of UK police forces.**

A developer lists all forces with their IDs and names to power a lookup table in another application.

### Why choose this scraper

|  | What you get |
|---|---|
| **No API key** | The public data.police.uk API needs no registration or token, and this Actor handles the requests for you. |
| **Fixed schema** | Every record comes out as a flat row with the same fields, ready for a spreadsheet or database. |
| **Up to a million rows** | Set maxItems to collect as many records as you need in a single run. |
| **Four endpoints** | Crimes, stop-and-search, forces, and neighbourhoods in one Actor. |

### How it compares

No other Store actor targets UK Police the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

| | UK Police Crime Data Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When UK Police changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |

### Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a location, force, date, and category, alone or together, and filters run as each record is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "mode": "crimes",
  "lat": "52.629729",
  "lng": "-1.131592",
  "force": "metropolitan"
}
```

A larger pull:

```json
{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "mode": "crimes",
  "lat": "52.629729",
  "lng": "-1.131592",
  "force": "metropolitan"
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-result: **$0.00999 per result** collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $1.00 |
| 1,000 results | $9.99 |
| 10,000 results | $99.90 |

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

### Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. [Upgrade your Apify plan](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [UK Police Crime Data Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper?fpr=vmoqkp).
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click **Start**.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the **Dataset** tab.

Run it programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) for JavaScript and Python.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to UK Police through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper"
```

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

### Troubleshooting

**Why am I getting no results?**

Check that your latitude and longitude are within the UK and that the date is not in the future. Also try leaving the category empty to see if any crimes exist at that location.

**The Actor returns an error about an invalid force.**

Make sure you are using the correct force slug. Run List Forces mode to see all valid slugs.

**I asked for 10,000 records but only got 500.**

The API only returns crimes for the month you specified, and only within a 1 mile radius. Try a different month or a more central location.

**Can I get data older than the latest month?**

Yes. Set the date field to any month in the format YYYY-MM. The API keeps historical data back to December 2010.

### FAQ

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need an API key for UK Police data? | No. The data.police.uk API is public and requires no authentication. This Actor calls it directly. |
| What is the maximum number of records I can get? | You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per run. The actual number returned depends on how many records match your filters. |
| Can I filter crimes by type? | Yes. In Crimes mode, set the category field to a slug like burglary, violent-crime, or anti-social-behaviour. Leave it empty to get all categories. |
| How do I specify a location? | In Crimes mode, provide a latitude and longitude. The API returns crimes within a 1 mile radius of that point. |
| What date format should I use? | Use YYYY-MM, for example 2024-01. Leave the date field empty to get the latest available month. |
| Can I get stop-and-search data for a specific force? | Yes. Switch to Stop & Search by Force mode and enter the force slug, such as metropolitan or west-yorkshire. |
| How do I list all police forces? | Select List Forces mode. The Actor returns every UK police force with its ID and name. |
| What is a force slug? | A short identifier for a police force, like metropolitan for the Met or thames-valley for Thames Valley Police. You can get the full list from List Forces mode. |
| Can I export the data to CSV? | Yes. The Actor supports CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML exports from the Apify dataset. |
| Does this cover the whole UK? | It covers England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Police Scotland does not publish to data.police.uk, so Scottish data is not included. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) for more scrapers.

🆘 **Need help?** Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ **Disclaimer.** This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UK Police. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.

# Actor input Schema

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

How many crime records to collect per run.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Crimes: street-level crimes at a location. StopSearch: stop-and-search records by force. Forces: list all UK police forces. Neighbourhoods: list neighbourhoods in a force.

## `lat` (type: `string`):

Crimes mode. Latitude of the search centre (e.g. 52.629729 for Leicester).

## `lng` (type: `string`):

Crimes mode. Longitude of the search centre.

## `date` (type: `string`):

Crimes and StopSearch modes. Month of data, e.g. 2024-01. Leave empty for the latest available month.

## `category` (type: `string`):

Crimes mode. Filter by a specific crime category slug (e.g. burglary, violent-crime, anti-social-behaviour). Leave empty for all.

## `force` (type: `string`):

StopSearch and Neighbourhoods modes. Force slug (e.g. metropolitan, west-yorkshire, thames-valley).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "mode": "crimes",
  "lat": "52.629729",
  "lng": "-1.131592",
  "force": "metropolitan"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "mode": "crimes",
    "lat": "52.629729",
    "lng": "-1.131592",
    "force": "metropolitan"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "mode": "crimes",
    "lat": "52.629729",
    "lng": "-1.131592",
    "force": "metropolitan",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "mode": "crimes",
  "lat": "52.629729",
  "lng": "-1.131592",
  "force": "metropolitan"
}' |
apify call parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parseforge/uk-police-crime-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qdEH48vaCFSVdfFIa/builds/Kb8VF5fxkUjMltPag/openapi.json