Photo: Geographer · CC BY-SA 2.0For violent crime, Halstead trails 65% of UK towns per resident
It has less crime per resident than 62% of the UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, 645 in all. Still, from September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Halstead’s built-up area put it at C+ for safety: #43 of 81 in Essex. Recorded violence fell 8% in a year. Its police logs show 28.8 violent and sexual offences and 10.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Halstead
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% less violent crime per resident in Halstead than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 21% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Halstead has the 153rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Raunds, Kippax and Warminster, higher than North Walsham, Byfleet and Helston. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Halstead: C+ for safety, and why
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,644 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Halstead against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Vehicle crime and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 387 | 27.8 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 92 | 6.6 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 90 | 6.5 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 78 | 5.6 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 67 | 4.8 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 47 | 3.4 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 33 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 29 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 29 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 20 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 6 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 3 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
How Halstead’s neighbourhoods rank in England
29% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 15% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Halstead’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
How crime in Halstead has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -21% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -32% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +14% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 64% of Halstead’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 14% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 4% of violent and 4% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 525 crimes.
Crime in Halstead per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 10 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Halstead places 153rd of 350 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 14 | Hockley and Hawkwell Essex | 15,430 | 14 | 7.9 | 4.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 22 | South Woodham Ferrers Essex | 16,029 | 17.9 | 6.3 | 9.3 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 44 | Saffron Walden Essex | 16,609 | 19.1 | 9 | 7.7 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 130 | Great Dunmow Essex | 10,395 | 24 | 13 | 6.8 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 150 | North Walsham Norfolk | 12,829 | 31.2 | 8 | 8.1 | C+ |
| 151 | Byfleet Surrey | 14,187 | 25.2 | 14.1 | 13.3 | C+ |
| 152 | Helston Cornwall | 11,366 | 29.6 | 9.8 | 7.7 | C+ |
| 153 | Halstead Essex | 13,902 | 28.8 | 10.7 | 12 | C+ |
| 154 | Driffield East Riding of Yorkshire | 13,216 | 31.1 | 8.3 | 7 | C+ |
| 155 | Ross-on-Wye Herefordshire | 10,993 | 28.4 | 11 | 17.3 | C+ |
| 156 | West End Hampshire | 10,865 | 24.4 | 15 | 9.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 350 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Halstead, and others in Essex.
Where in Halstead police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 335 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 177 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 132 | 38% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 49 | 78% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 39 | 49% violent |
police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Halstead. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Halstead’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 59 collisions with injuries inside Halstead in five years. 12 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Halstead’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Halstead’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Halstead had 17.3 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Halstead’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Halstead
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halstead | 13,902 | 28.8 | 10.7 | C+ |
| Gosfield | 1,453 | 9.9 | 4.4 | A+ |
| Earls Colne | 3,360 | 28.8 | 7 | C+ |
| Sible Hedingham | 4,261 | 25.7 | 8.3 | B− |
| Castle Hedingham | 1,045 | 14.4 | 8.6 | A− |
| Coggeshall | 3,767 | 24.7 | 9.4 | B− |
| Braintree | 43,179 | 39.8 | 12.4 | C− |
| Great Yeldham | 1,824 | 23.6 | 11 | B− |
Halstead records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Braintree records more. Gosfield, 1.9 miles away, records 9.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Halstead’s 28.8.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Halstead sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Halstead
Is Halstead safe?
Police recorded 28.8 violent and sexual offences and 10.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Halstead’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 36% of UK towns. Among 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Halstead is 153rd from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Halstead?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 21%, shoplifting and theft fell 32% and anti-social behaviour rose 14%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Halstead?
Violence & sexual offences: 387 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (92) and public order (78), with 90 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Halstead compare with Braintree?
Braintree records 39.8 violent and sexual offences and 12.4 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Halstead’s 28.8 and 10.7, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.