Public access to policing data for England and Wales.
Council area
Waltham Forest crime rate and statistics (council area)
Updated October 2026.
Police published 29,404 street-crime records for the Waltham Forest council area from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 4.5% more than in the 12 months before. The rate is 105.6 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, against 127.5 for Metropolitan Police. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.
These figures cover the whole area Waltham Forest council runs. Its boundary can differ from the place people call Waltham Forest: 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
29,404
Latest month (August 2026)
2,388
Year-on-year
+4.5%
Month-by-month totals
2,6230
2.5k
Sep
2.5k
Oct
2.5k
Nov
2.4k
Dec
2.4k
Jan
2.2k
Feb
2.4k
Mar
2.4k
Apr
2.6k
May
2.5k
Jun
2.6k
Jul
2.4k
Aug
Show as a table
Month
Street-crime records
September 2025
2,463
October 2025
2,536
November 2025
2,535
December 2025
2,363
January 2026
2,374
February 2026
2,234
March 2026
2,444
April 2026
2,385
May 2026
2,554
June 2026
2,505
July 2026
2,623
August 2026
2,388
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.
Waltham Forest council area
105.6
Metropolitan Police
127.5
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.
29,404 records and 278,467 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 Waltham Forest 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.
Violence and sexual offences25.3%
7,430 records · England and Wales 35.5%
Anti-social behaviour23.5%
6,897 records · England and Wales 15.7%
Vehicle crime8.5%
2,508 records · England and Wales 5.1%
Other theft7.9%
2,314 records · England and Wales 6.7%
Shoplifting7.4%
2,180 records · England and Wales 8.7%
Drugs5.4%
1,588 records · England and Wales 3.4%
Public order4.8%
1,415 records · England and Wales 6.9%
Burglary4.4%
1,289 records · England and Wales 3.7%
Where records cluster in the Waltham Forest council area
Records by part of the Waltham Forest council area: the south 13,020, the south-east 4,897, the south-west 4,380, the north 3,101, the north-east 1,821, the west 1,042, the north-west 1,006, the east 451, the centre 141.
North is at the top. Each hexagon is about 300 m across, the size the crime map uses zoomed in, and holds at least one of the Waltham Forest council area's postcodes; darker ones hold more records. Hexagons at the edge also hold records from neighbouring council areas, and the Waltham Forest 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 Waltham Forest council area records cluster in, not where incidents happened. Explore the Waltham Forest council area on the crime map.
Year by year
Calendar-year totals for the Waltham Forest council area (December 2013 to August 2026).
A council area follows the council's boundary (ONS local authority district E09000031), which can differ from the place people call Waltham Forest.
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 Waltham Forest. 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.