Living in leafy suburbs like Harrow on the Hill and Pinner is not necessarily all it is cracked up to be according to crime figures released last week.
Newly developed crime maps, posted on the Metropolitan Police website, show serene Harrow on the Hill was amongst the hardest hit wards in the borough last month when it came to burglaries, robberies and vehicle crime, while quiet Hatch End and Pinner had high levels of crime in June.
Overall, police received more calls to these categories of crime in Roxbourne last month than any other ward, but Harrow on the Hill came a close second.
In June, Harrow Weald topped the crime table with Hatch End just behind while Pinner came in at a surprising fifth.
On the whole, however, the 273 crimes shown on Harrow's crime map last month makes the borough amongst the safest in London - with only Sutton, Merton, Kingston-Upon-Thames and Richmond-Upon-Thames having less crime.
The maps, which record statistics for the last two months, allow comparisons on a ward-by-ward basis and on a larger scale across London - an initiative well received by Harrow's borough commander Richard Walton, who believes the idea shows the police have nothing to hide.
He said: "Statistics like this are long overdue and they show that the police are trying to be as transparent as conceivably possible.
"Overall these figures demonstrate Harrow is a low level crime borough and amongst the safest in the capital.
"I am quite surprised that areas like Harrow on the Hill and Pinner have featured quite highly in past months but there are always anomalies.
"It also has to be remembered that behind every statistic there is an individual story."
Although these statistics obviously fail to recognise the level of unreported crime in Harrow Mr Walton suggested the figures are somewhat balanced because they do include bogus calls.
He also said: "Sometimes stats don't paint the complete picture.
"For example, Pinner may not have any crime for the majority of a month and then one criminal could carry out a spate of burglaries or robberies and each would be recorded individually.
"Overall though we are happy that people are able to have an indication of crime levels - it is a good starting point and hopefully in the future we can develop it to include a number of offences."
The new crime maps are available at www.maps.met.police.uk
