Council area

Watford crime rate and statistics (council area)

Updated October 2026.

Police published 11,894 street-crime records for the Watford council area from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 10.6% more than in the 12 months before. The rate is 116.4 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, against 91.4 for Hertfordshire Constabulary. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.

These figures cover the whole area Watford council runs. Its boundary can differ from the place people call Watford: it can take in other towns and villages, and part of a town can sit in a neighbouring council area.

Explore the crime map

Last 12 published months

September 2025 to August 2026. Street-crime records include anti-social behaviour.

Street-crime records

11,894

Latest month (August 2026)

1,134

Year-on-year

+10.6%

Month-by-month totals

934

Sep

960

Oct

886

Nov

905

Dec

891

Jan

848

Feb

999

Mar

953

Apr

1.0k

May

1.1k

Jun

1.2k

Jul

1.1k

Aug

Show as a table

Month	Street-crime records
September 2025	934
October 2025	960
November 2025	886
December 2025	905
January 2026	891
February 2026	848
March 2026	999
April 2026	953
May 2026	1,041
June 2026	1,148
July 2026	1,195
August 2026	1,134

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.

Watford council area

116.4

Hertfordshire Constabulary

91.4

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.

11,894 records and 102,174 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 Watford 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.

Where records cluster in the Watford council area

Records by part of the Watford council area: the south 5,256, the north-east 1,732, the north 1,657, the south-east 1,330, the south-west 1,060, the north-west 431, the east 269, the west 174, the centre 159.

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 Watford council area's postcodes; darker ones hold more records. Hexagons at the edge also hold records from neighbouring council areas, and the Watford 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 Watford council area records cluster in, not where incidents happened. Explore the Watford council area on the crime map.

Year by year

Calendar-year totals for the Watford council area (December 2013 to August 2026).

Year	Street-crime records
2021	9,537
2022	10,664
2023	10,303
2024	10,256
2025	11,097
2026 (part year)	8,209

Police forces

The Watford council area's records from September 2025 to August 2026 were published by Hertfordshire Constabulary (99.4%), Metropolitan Police (0.5%), Bedfordshire Police (0.1%), Leicestershire Police (0.0%), Northamptonshire Police (0.0%), Derbyshire Constabulary (0.0%), Devon and Cornwall Police (0.0%), Nottinghamshire Police (0.0%) and South Wales Police (0.0%).

Limits to keep in mind

A council area follows the council's boundary (ONS local authority district E07000103), which can differ from the place people call Watford.
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 Watford. 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.
Full detail is on the methodology page.

Browse all council areas

Postcode areas and neighbouring councils

Postcode districts

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.

Postcode sectors

Neighbouring council areas

Council areas that share a postcode district with this one.

Cite this page

This page updates as new months are published, so a citation needs the months shown and the date you read it. One click selects the whole citation.

CrimeMapsUK. Watford council area: published street-crime records, September 2025 to August 2026. Source: data.police.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Retrieved 30 October 2026. Police locations are approximate; records are assigned to the area by nearest postcode. Postcode centroids from the ONS Postcode Directory. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. https://crimemapsuk.com/crime/council-areas/watford/