diff --git a/app.js b/app.js
index c72dd515..d499c283 100644
--- a/app.js
+++ b/app.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ var sanitisers = {};
 sanitisers.doc      = require('./sanitiser/doc');
 sanitisers.suggest  = require('./sanitiser/suggest');
 sanitisers.search   = sanitisers.suggest;
+sanitisers.coarse   = require('./sanitiser/coarse');
 sanitisers.reverse  = require('./sanitiser/reverse');
 
 /** ----------------------- controllers ----------------------- **/
@@ -47,6 +48,8 @@ app.get( '/search', sanitisers.search.middleware, controllers.search() );
 // reverse API
 app.get( '/reverse', sanitisers.reverse.middleware, controllers.search(undefined, require('./query/reverse')) );
 
+// coarse API
+app.get( '/search/coarse', sanitisers.coarse.middleware, controllers.search() );
 
 /** ----------------------- error middleware ----------------------- **/
 
diff --git a/sanitiser/coarse.js b/sanitiser/coarse.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b79f884f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sanitiser/coarse.js
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+
+var logger = require('../src/logger'),
+    _sanitize = require('../sanitiser/_sanitize'),
+    sanitizers = {
+      input: require('../sanitiser/_input'),
+      size: require('../sanitiser/_size'),
+      layers: function( req ) {
+        req.query.layers = 'admin';
+        var layers = require('../sanitiser/_layers');
+        return layers(req);
+      },
+      latlonzoom: require('../sanitiser/_latlonzoom')
+    };
+
+var sanitize = function(req, cb) { _sanitize(req, sanitizers, cb); };
+
+// export sanitize for testing
+module.exports.sanitize = sanitize;
+
+// middleware
+module.exports.middleware = function( req, res, next ){
+  sanitize( req, function( err, clean ){
+    if( err ){
+      res.status(400); // 400 Bad Request
+      return next(err);
+    }
+    req.clean = clean;
+    next();
+  });
+};
\ No newline at end of file