The fastest way to check crime in your area is to search your postcode, then compare it with a similar area. There are three reliable routes: the official police.uk site, our postcode checker, and the UK crime map. All of them draw on the same monthly police data, and the most recent month published on data.police.uk in September 2026 is July 2026.
Data: data.police.uk about page, changelog and API documentation, and police.uk, checked 29 September 2026. Latest data month: July 2026.
How do I check crime in my area?
Enter a postcode, street address or area into police.uk, or into our postcode checker, and read the recorded crime for the surrounding area. Look at the trend across several months and compare with a similar place, because one month on its own is a weak signal.
Way 1: police.uk, the official source
police.uk is run for the police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You can enter a postcode, street address or area, and it tells you which local policing team and force covers the place and gives contact details for that team, including the non-emergency number 101. It is the right place to find out who to talk to about a local problem, and it links to the latest crime statistics for the area.
Its strength is authority. Its limit is that a single search shows you one place at one time, so comparing two streets or watching a trend takes several searches.
Way 2: our postcode checker
Our postcode checker takes any UK postcode and shows 12 months of police-recorded crime with the trend by month. You can add a second postcode and compare two areas side by side, which is the step most people need when choosing between two places to rent or buy. It is free and needs no sign-up.
Two limits are worth knowing. Counts cover roughly a one-mile radius around the postcode, not the street itself. Violent and sexual offences are deliberately shown together, because separating them could make a victim’s location identifiable.
Way 3: the UK crime map
The UK crime map lets you zoom in on a street and see what was recorded nearby. Use it when the postcode total looks high and you want to know whether the crime is spread out or concentrated on one road, a car park or a shopping street. Maps are good for spotting concentration and poor for judging risk to an individual, because a single busy location can dominate the picture.
Why do the three ways show the same numbers?
All three rely on street-level crime data that police forces publish monthly through data.police.uk. The service covers 43 geographic police forces in England and Wales, the British Transport Police, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Ministry of Justice. Police Scotland is not among the listed providers, so Scottish areas need Scottish Government statistics instead. The differences between tools come from how they present the data, not from separate sources. Our page on where our crime data comes from explains the pipeline in more detail.
What can the data not tell you?
Reading the results correctly matters more than which tool you use. These are the limits that data.police.uk itself documents, plus the two that most affect everyday decisions.
| Limit | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Locations are anonymised | Each crime is moved to the nearest of 773,504 anonymous map points, most of them (679,089) on streets. Every point has a catchment of at least eight postal addresses or none, so a dot is never a specific home. |
| Accuracy varies by force | data.police.uk states that location accuracy ranges from 60 to 97 per cent across forces because of inconsistent geocoding policies. |
| Some forces have gaps | The changelog says Greater Manchester Police currently has no crime, outcome or stop and search data available while it moves to a new IT system. Avon and Somerset has roughly 2,000 crimes a month without location data. |
| Data can be revised | Crimes may be reclassified or relocated after upload, and later changes are only picked up if a force does a complete data refresh. |
| Reported crime only | Unreported crime never appears, and a place where people report more readily can look worse than it is. |
How do I read the result sensibly?
Compare like with like: a town centre against another town centre, a residential road against another residential road. Look at the mix of crime as well as the total, since shoplifting or vehicle crime carries a very different personal risk from violence. Check whether the trend is rising or flat over several months instead of reacting to one high month. Finally, remember the radius: a one-mile circle around a postcode can include a station, a high street and a park.
Street-level data also carries no time of day, so it cannot tell you whether a place feels different after dark. For that, use the figures alongside a look at the route itself. Our city pages show this in practice, for example is Birmingham safe and is London safe, and the London borough ranking shows why a high count is often a busy-area effect.
Want this on the walk itself?
Safety App UK puts a live safety map built from official crime data on your phone, with routes that avoid high-risk areas and one-tap SOS to your trusted circle. Start with a 7-day free trial (for accounts that have not used one before; a payment method is needed), then £2.99 a month or £29.99 a year. Cancel any time in Google Play.
Get the app Check your postcode
Checking crime in your area: FAQ
Is there a free way to check crime by postcode?
Yes. police.uk and our postcode checker are both free, and neither needs an account.
How recent is the data?
It is published monthly with a lag, so the newest weeks are never included. The latest month on data.police.uk in September 2026 was July 2026.
Does the data cover Scotland?
Not through data.police.uk, which lists forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland plus British Transport Police and the Ministry of Justice. Scottish figures come from the Scottish Government and Police Scotland.
Why is my area missing or showing very little?
Some forces have gaps. Greater Manchester Police currently publishes no crime data on data.police.uk, so tools built on it cannot show recent Manchester street-level figures. Our Manchester page explains what a force-wide number can and cannot tell you.
Should I report a crime through these tools?
No. They only display published data. In an emergency call 999, and use 101 for non-emergencies.
The crime map is the quickest way to see what was recorded near a specific street. For what to do after a crime or safety incident, see our sister site safety-app.co.uk.