Open police data publishes counts of recorded crimes in an area, not rates per head of population. A busy district with shops, a station and a night-time economy will always out-count a quiet residential one, and that tells you about footfall as much as about safety.
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Crime counts and crime rates are not the same thing
Open police data publishes counts of recorded crimes in an area, not rates per head of population.
- 1 min read
- Updated 21 September 2026
Part 1 of 4
Reading the numbers honestly
| What you see | What it does not tell you |
|---|---|
| A count of recorded crimes in a radius | How many people or premises are in that radius |
| A high total in a city centre | Whether a resident is more likely to be a victim |
| A month-on-month change | Whether the change is real or a publication artefact |
| Points on a map | Exact locations — they are snapped to anonymised points for victim privacy |
Recorded crime is also only crime that was reported and recorded. Under-reporting varies by crime type and by community, so a lower count is not automatically a safer place.
The fair comparison is like with like: two residential districts in the same city, over the same period, from the same publication. Comparing a city centre with a village tells you where the shops are.
Read the trend over twelve months rather than any single month. Forces publish on their own schedule and a recent month is often incomplete.
Part 2 of 4
Check it yourself, free
Crime rate by postcode — no account, no email wall.
Part 3 of 4