Photo: Jonathan Clitheroe · CC BY-SA 2.0More burglary, vehicle crime and damage is recorded per resident in Shepshed than in 82% of UK towns
Burglary runs at 4 per 1,000 residents in Shepshed, against 2.4 in a typical town its size: police recorded 60 in the 12 months to August 2026. The local count comes to 32.1 violent and sexual offences and 15.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year. Weighing it all, Shepshed earns C− for safety (#44 of 50 in Leicestershire), with more crime per resident than 76% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026. What’s more, violent crime was up 26% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Shepshed
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 26% more violent crime per resident in Shepshed 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 rose 9% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 372 UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000 people, Shepshed has the 241st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than New Ollerton and Ollerton, Chepstow and Wells, higher than Brockworth, Enniskillen and Guisborough. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Shepshed’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 2,125 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Shepshed against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Shepshed 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 +26% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +9% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +27% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +12% (towns its size -4%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Shepshed runs highest on burglary (4 per 1,000 against 2.4), vehicle crime (4.1 per 1,000 against 2.8) and public order (6.8 per 1,000 against 5.4).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 458 | 30.8 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 197 | 13.2 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 115 | 7.7 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 101 | 6.8 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 88 | 5.9 | 6.1 |
| Other theft | not graded | 61 | 4.1 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 61 | 4.1 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 60 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 29 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 12 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 10 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 6 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 5 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | 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 Shepshed’s neighbourhoods rank in England
28% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 13% 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.
Shepshed’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.
Crime in Shepshed 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 16 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.
Shepshed is 241st of 372 UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 99 | Birstall Leicestershire | 14,317 | 19 | 14.2 | 7.3 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 113 | Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe Leicestershire | 13,847 | 20.6 | 13.8 | 8.7 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 116 | Lutterworth Leicestershire | 10,519 | 22.8 | 11.9 | 12.6 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 131 | Blaby and Whetstone Leicestershire | 14,072 | 24.7 | 11.8 | 8.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 238 | Brockworth Gloucestershire | 12,007 | 38.6 | 8.9 | 7.7 | C− |
| 239 | Enniskillen Fermanagh and Omagh | 14,086 | 33.3 | 14.3 | 13 | C− |
| 240 | Guisborough North Yorkshire | 18,091 | 31 | 16.6 | 20.8 | C− |
| 241 | Shepshed Leicestershire | 14,873 | 32.1 | 15.5 | 10.4 | C− |
| 242 | Devizes Wiltshire | 19,491 | 35.8 | 12.4 | 13.7 | C− |
| 243 | Newmarket Suffolk | 18,857 | 34.6 | 13.6 | 16.9 | C− |
| 244 | Nantwich Cheshire | 18,741 | 39.5 | 8.8 | 14.1 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 372 | 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 Shepshed, and others in Leicestershire.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 71% of Shepshed’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 16% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (59% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 8% 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. 821 crimes.
No one died in a collision on Shepshed’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 15 collisions with injuries inside Shepshed in five years. 5 people were killed or seriously injured: 1 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 Shepshed’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Shepshed’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Shepshed’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 18 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Shepshed had 5.
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 Shepshed’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Shepshed
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shepshed | 14,873 | 32.1 | 15.5 | C− |
| Hathern | 2,351 | 13.6 | 11.8 | B+ |
| Long Whatton | 1,157 | 9.8 | 8.9 | A |
| Loughborough | 64,850 | 35.6 | 22 | D |
| Whitwick | 10,455 | 26 | 11.6 | C+ |
| Sutton Bonington | 2,064 | 4.8 | 10 | A |
| Coalville | 21,975 | 45.4 | 18.3 | D |
| Woodhouse Eaves | 1,618 | 13.6 | 13.8 | B |
Shepshed records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Loughborough and Coalville record more. Hathern, 2.4 miles away, records 13.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Shepshed’s 32.1.
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 Shepshed 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 Shepshed
Is Shepshed safe?
Police recorded 32.1 violent and sexual offences and 15.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Shepshed’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 24% of UK towns. Among 372 UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000 people, Shepshed is 241st from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Shepshed?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 26%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 9%, shoplifting and theft rose 27% and anti-social behaviour rose 12%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Shepshed?
Violence & sexual offences: 458 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (115) and public order (101), with 197 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Shepshed compare with Loughborough?
Loughborough records 35.6 violent and sexual offences and 22 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Shepshed’s 32.1 and 15.5, 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.