Long awaited, anticipated and hated – it finally arrives: the official, state-owned Crime Map displaying law violations committed on the territory of Latvia.

Provided by the government e-services web portal Latvija.lv, the map currently features crimes from January 1 2010 only, but definitely provides valuable informative insight.

It is available in Latvian only and allows searching by various types of violations including theft, burglary, assault, sex offence, fraud, as well as car accidents and DWI, plus fire cases throughout the country.

From what I see, the interface and functionality is lacking and far from perfect: ugly search fields, checkboxes,  non-Google map which updates by new search only, not much user friendly map icons.. These are just first impressions.

Have a surf yourself, maybe for a better cause the disadvantages are bearable?

Will you use the Crime Map, and how?