Public access to policing data for England and Wales.
Council area
Bedford crime rate and statistics (council area)
Updated October 2026.
Police published 18,606 street-crime records for the Bedford council area from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 8.4% more than in the 12 months before. The rate is 100.5 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, against 88.9 for Bedfordshire Police. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.
These figures cover the whole area Bedford council runs. Its boundary can differ from the place people call Bedford: it can take in other towns and villages, and part of a town can sit in a neighbouring council area.
September 2025 to August 2026. Street-crime records include anti-social behaviour.
Street-crime records
18,606
Latest month (August 2026)
1,865
Year-on-year
+8.4%
Month-by-month totals
2,0240
1.5k
Sep
1.5k
Oct
1.5k
Nov
1.3k
Dec
1.3k
Jan
1.2k
Feb
1.6k
Mar
1.6k
Apr
1.7k
May
1.7k
Jun
2.0k
Jul
1.9k
Aug
Show as a table
Month
Street-crime records
September 2025
1,475
October 2025
1,495
November 2025
1,450
December 2025
1,285
January 2026
1,306
February 2026
1,218
March 2026
1,564
April 2026
1,563
May 2026
1,668
June 2026
1,693
July 2026
2,024
August 2026
1,865
Street-crime records per 1,000 residents
Published street-crime records (including anti-social behaviour), September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 usual residents in the Census 2021.
Bedford council area
100.5
Bedfordshire Police
88.9
Residents are the Census 2021 usual residents of every postcode the ONS Postcode Directory places in this council area, added up by CrimeMapsUK from the census postcode counts. Records are assigned through the same postcodes, so both numbers cover the same ground. The total can differ slightly from the council's official population.
18,606 records and 185,201 residents. Residents-only rates overstate crime where many people visit who do not live there, such as city centres, stations, and retail parks. Residents are counted at March 2021 while records are current, so areas with many newer homes can read higher.
No England and Wales comparison is shown, because not every force involved has published every month of this window.
Rates cover England and Wales only. Residents: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 postcode estimates, Open Government Licence v3.0. How rates are built.
Top crime categories
Share of the Bedford council area's records in the same trailing window. The black line on each bar marks the England and Wales share for the same months.
Records by part of the Bedford council area: the south 15,012, the south-west 1,389, the south-east 1,367, the north-west 696, the east 444, the west 238, the north-east 154, the north 108.
North is at the top. Each hexagon is about 1.2 km across, the size the crime map uses zoomed out, and holds at least one of the Bedford council area's postcodes; darker ones hold more records. Hexagons at the edge also hold records from neighbouring council areas, and the Bedford council area's records placed outside these hexagons are not drawn, so the map's counts won't add up to the page's total. Police place each record at an approximate public point, so this shows which parts of the Bedford council area records cluster in, not where incidents happened. Explore the Bedford council area on the crime map.
Year by year
Calendar-year totals for the Bedford council area (December 2013 to August 2026).
A council area follows the council's boundary (ONS local authority district E06000055), which can differ from the place people call Bedford.
Published locations are approximate, and each record counts for the council area of its nearest postcode, using the council codes in the ONS Postcode Directory. Counts near the boundary are indicative.
These are counts of published police records, not all crime, and not a safety score.
Other sites can show a different figure for Bedford. These counts include anti-social behaviour, cover the 12 published months shown, and assign each record by its nearest postcode. The rate divides by Census 2021 residents of the same postcodes, not by a later mid-year population estimate.
Districts with a page and at least 5% of their live postcodes in this council area. A district can cross a council boundary, so its page counts records on both sides.