Crime in Kent
Published street-crime records for Kent from the Kent Police area on data.police.uk.
Updated October 2026.
Police published 176,993 street-crime records for the Kent Police area from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 2.4% fewer than in the 12 months before. The rate is 95.4 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.
Data scope: Maidstone, Canterbury, Medway, and the Kent Police area.
Council areas in the Kent Police area ranked by crime rate ↓
This page covers the whole Kent Police area. Council areas with enough published records have their own page.
Latest month: August 2026
Street-crime records
16,757
Police-recorded action or local resolution
172
Share with those outcomes
1.0%
Coverage for Kent Police currently spans 153 months
of loaded street-crime data, from December 2013 to August 2026.
Outcome shares are descriptive summaries of published police outcomes, not conviction rates.
Website outcome summaries include anti-social behaviour among records with no outcome. The PDF outcome mix leaves it out because police publish no outcome for it.
Last 12 loaded months
September 2025 to August 2026. Street-crime records include anti-social behaviour.
Street-crime records
176,993
Share with action or local resolution
3.6%
Change vs previous 12 months
-2.4%
Month-by-month totals
| Month |
Street-crime records |
| September 2025 |
13,351 |
| October 2025 |
14,168 |
| November 2025 |
14,134 |
| December 2025 |
14,512 |
| January 2026 |
13,821 |
| February 2026 |
13,188 |
| March 2026 |
15,290 |
| April 2026 |
14,704 |
| May 2026 |
15,292 |
| June 2026 |
14,986 |
| July 2026 |
16,790 |
| August 2026 |
16,757 |
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.
176,993 records and 1,855,937 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.
Council areas in the Kent Police area ranked by published crime rate
Published street-crime records per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, September 2025 to August 2026, as each council area's page shows them. This ranks rates, not safety: a residents-only rate reads high where many people visit and few live, such as a city centre. How this ranking is built.
| Rank of 13 |
Council area |
Per 1,000 |
Records |
| 1 |
Thanet
140,546 residents
|
117.3 |
16,482 |
| 2 |
Dartford
116,756 residents
|
114.4 |
13,358 |
| 3 |
Canterbury
157,343 residents
|
110.9 |
17,455 |
| 4 |
Medway
279,820 residents
|
107.1 |
29,958 |
| 5 |
Swale
151,809 residents
|
103.6 |
15,728 |
| 6 |
Gravesham
106,925 residents
|
95.9 |
10,250 |
| 7 |
Maidstone
175,740 residents
|
93.3 |
16,400 |
| 8 |
Dover
116,386 residents
|
90.4 |
10,516 |
| 9 |
Folkestone and Hythe
109,851 residents
|
87.8 |
9,648 |
| 10 |
Ashford
132,753 residents
|
82.1 |
10,894 |
| 11 |
Tonbridge and Malling
132,057 residents
|
70.1 |
9,262 |
| 12 |
Tunbridge Wells
115,369 residents
|
70.0 |
8,075 |
| 13 |
Sevenoaks
120,582 residents
|
63.9 |
7,711 |
Council areas in the Kent Police area ranked by published crime rate, as CSV too, and council areas across England and Wales.
Top crime categories
Share of street-crime records in the same trailing window for the Kent Police area.
| Category |
Records |
Share |
| Violence and sexual offences |
61,945 |
35.0% |
| Anti-social behaviour |
35,740 |
20.2% |
| Shoplifting |
16,516 |
9.3% |
| Criminal damage and arson |
15,860 |
9.0% |
| Other theft |
12,267 |
6.9% |
| Vehicle crime |
7,400 |
4.2% |
| Public order |
6,824 |
3.9% |
| Drugs |
5,915 |
3.3% |
Stop and search
Latest loaded month for Kent Police: August 2026.
Limits to keep in mind
- These figures are published police records for the Kent Police area, not a single borough, council area, street, or postcode.
- Published locations are approximate; they are snapped to anonymous map points before release.
- Recording practices differ between forces, so force-to-force comparisons need care.
- Outcome labels are not court results or conviction rates.
Full detail is on the methodology page.
For a fixed 0.5 km postcode window, order a
neighbourhood report.
Moving home? See
how to check crime rates before buying a house
and
how to read a police crime map.
For what a force boundary covers, read
what is a police force or constabulary.
Browse all police force areas
Postcode districts
District pages where Kent Police published most of the records, September 2025 to August 2026. Each district page lists the sectors that have their own page.
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. The CSV holds this page's monthly and category figures for Kent Police area, with the same source and months.
CrimeMapsUK. Kent Police area: published street-crime records, September 2025 to August 2026. Source: data.police.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Retrieved 31 October 2026. Police locations are approximate. https://crimemapsuk.com/crime/kent/
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