Recorded crime
Watford recorded crime by postcode district
Crimes police recorded in July 2026 within roughly 1 mile of each district centre, across 5 Watford districts. Counts, not rates.
Crimes recorded, July 2026
2,084
Across 5 districts, within about 1 mile of each centre.
- Districts
- 5
- Most recorded
- Violence
data.police.uk, July 2026
Summary
Recorded crime in Watford: police recorded 2,084 crimes in July 2026 within roughly 1 mile of the centre of each of the 5 postcode districts with a published figure. WD19 has the lowest recorded count (201) and WD17 the highest (643). The most often recorded category was violent crime, at 33% of the month's recorded crimes. These are counts, not rates: a district with shops, bars and a station will out-count a residential one on footfall alone.
Data from data.police.uk street-level crime API, July 2026.
Read this first
These are counts, not rates. data.police.uk street-level crime API publishes how many crimes were recorded near a point; it publishes no population figure to divide by. A district with a station, shops and bars will record more crime than a residential one because more people pass through it, not necessarily because residents are more likely to be a victim. Recorded crime is also only crime that was reported and recorded, and reporting rates vary by crime type and by area.
Use this to see the shape of a city and to prompt better questions, not to decide that one district is good and another bad.
Our take · opinion, not advice
Our take on Watford crime counts: big differences, read with care
Taken together, 5 Watford districts saw 2,084 crimes recorded in July 2026, running from 201 in WD19 to 643 in WD17, which says more about where people gather than about where anyone feels at risk.
If you are selling, buyers can find figures like these in a minute, so know your district’s count, be ready to say what a count does and does not mean, and expect the question.
Sell houseWhen you are weighing a Watford home, use the table to decide what to ask rather than where to avoid: violent crime led the categories at 33%.
Before you offer, visit at different times of day, look at the police’s own street-level map for the postcode, talk to neighbours, and ask your conveyancer about anything the seller must disclose.
Take the address you are considering through the free OfferCheck, which shows crime beside flood, planning, council tax and sold prices with the sources named.
Check My PostcodeOur opinion, drawn from the figures on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
Key figures
Watford crime counts at a glance
Police records for July 2026. A count near each district centre is not a safety ranking.
Lowest district
201
WD19, crimes recorded
Middle district
364
Median of the districts
Highest district
643
WD17, crimes recorded
Top category
Violence
678 of 2,084 crimes
Recorded crime
Watford crime by category and district
2,084 recorded crimes across 5 districts in July 2026.
By category
What the recorded crimes were
Violent crime was the most recorded category, with 678 of 2,084 crimes (33%). It describes the month's police records, not what is likely to happen to you.
See the figures
| Category | Recorded | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 678 | 33% |
| Anti social behaviour | 492 | 24% |
| Shoplifting | 194 | 9% |
| Other theft | 165 | 8% |
| Public order | 127 | 6% |
data.police.uk street-level crime API, July 2026
By district
Watford districts, lowest recorded count first
Counts run from 201 in WD19 to 643 in WD17. Each row is one postcode district: how many crimes police recorded within about a mile of its centre.
See the figures
| District | Recorded crimes | Most recorded category | Area data |
|---|---|---|---|
| WD19 | 201 | Violent crime (77) | WD19 area report |
| WD25 | 296 | Violent crime (102) | WD25 area report |
| WD24 | 364 | Violent crime (115) | WD24 area report |
| WD18 | 580 | Violent crime (195) | WD18 area report |
| WD17 | 643 | Violent crime (189) | WD17 area report |
Districts with no figure published for July 2026 are left out rather than shown as zero: a force not having published yet is not the same fact as no crime.
data.police.uk street-level crime API, July 2026
Reading the numbers
What the numbers show
Across the 5 Watford postcode districts with a published figure for July 2026, police recorded 2,084 crimes in total within roughly a mile of each district centroid. The median district recorded 364.
WD19 has the lowest recorded crime count of the districts listed (201), and WD17 the highest (643).
The spread across the city is wide: the highest-counting district recorded about 3.2 times as many crimes as the lowest. Much of a gap that size reflects what is in the radius: a city-centre district with shops, bars and a station will out-count a residential one before any difference in how people behave.
The most frequently recorded category across these districts was violent crime, at 33% of all recorded crimes in the month.
Questions, answered
Watford recorded crime: your questions
How many crimes were recorded in Watford?
Which Watford districts record the fewest crimes?
What is the most commonly recorded crime in Watford?
Why does this page not rank Watford districts by crime rate?
Source and method
Where these figures come from
data.police.uk street-level crime API (API documentation), month 2026-07, one request per district at its centroid, ~1 mile radius. England and Wales only. Data.police.uk does not carry Police Scotland or PSNI. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Crime locations published by police forces are snapped to anonymised map points to protect victims, so a point is never an exact address. A guide is only generated for a city where at least 5 of its districts have a published figure.
Your Property Check is an information service, not a substitute for your own enquiries.