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Market Street, DissPhoto: Vieve Forward · CC BY-SA 2.0
C+Safety Grade
Safety in Diss · police.uk, 2023–2026

Diss records shoplifting at 8.5 times the rate of a typical town its size

Violent crime was up 6% in a year. The overall Safety Grade is C+ (#37 of 51 in Norfolk), which means more crime per resident than 64% of UK towns, judged on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. For its size, it sits below 35% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people on crime per resident. Violence and property crime split as 29.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.

Violent crime
29.5
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
10.2
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
19.1
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
8.2
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Diss

Violent crime rose over the year

In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% more violent crime per resident in Diss than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage rose 74% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓

About the middle for a town its size

Of 411 UK towns of 7,000 to 13,000 people, Diss has the 208th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Cromer, Kippax and Irthlingborough, higher than Raunds, Ecclesfield and Grenoside and Ryton. Towns its size ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

The C+ for Diss, and how it is built

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 35% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people: about the middle for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (29.5 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 33% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (10.2 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 45% of UK towns
CC+

A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,140 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Diss against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences30.1
Shoplifting15.6
Criminal damage & arson7.8
Anti-social behaviour7.1
Public order5.4
Other theft4.1
Burglary2.2
Other crime2.2
Vehicle crime2
Bicycle theft0.7
Theft from the person0.7
Possession of weapons0.6
Robbery0.5
Drugs0.4
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Diss runs highest on shoplifting (15.6 per 1,000 against 1.8), criminal damage & arson (7.8 per 1,000 against 4.5) and public order (5.4 per 1,000 against 3.6). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent28930.122.4
Shopliftingnot graded15015.61.8
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle757.84.5
Anti-social behaviournot graded687.18.8
Public ordernot graded525.43.6
Other theftnot graded394.13.2
BurglaryHome & vehicle212.21.9
Other crimenot graded212.21.5
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle1922
Bicycle theftnot graded70.70.1
Theft from the personnot graded70.70
Possession of weaponsViolent60.60.4
RobberyViolent50.50.2
Drugsnot graded40.41

“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.

What happened next

Police in Diss identify a suspect more often than across UK towns

Violent crime
Diss
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Diss
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 49% of Diss’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 4% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (70% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 5% 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. 375 crimes.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

How Diss’s neighbourhoods rank in England

0%1
0%2
18%3
0%4
17%5
0%6
26%7
22%8
16%9
0%10
Higher crimeLower crime

38% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.

Diss’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.

Trend · monthly

How crime in Diss has moved

“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).

Rolling twelve-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 +6% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +74% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +2% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour +3% (towns its size +0%).

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Diss per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
300
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
115
homes & vehicles
203
shoplifting & theft
64
of the three, per 1,000

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 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 21 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

Towns its size

Set against 411 towns its size, Diss is 208th

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Greasby Merseyside9,17511.33.72.5A
…
32Poringland Norfolk7,105195.33.5B+
…
67Bradwell Norfolk11,63219.38.86.3B
…
70Aylsham Norfolk7,18322.16.36.5B
…
78Hethersett Norfolk7,01822.16.86.9B
…
205Raunds Northamptonshire10,23128.910.66.3C+
206Ecclesfield and Grenoside South Yorkshire8,1872118.520.6C+
207Ryton Tyne and Wear8,8042415.821.3C+
208Diss Norfolk9,59929.510.219.1C+
209Anstey Leicestershire7,0432514.85.7C+
210Dursley Gloucestershire7,93530.59.39.6C+
211Beddau Mid Glamorgan7,35631.28.76.2C+
…
411City of London London7,820252.8111.5710D−

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 Diss, and others in Norfolk.

Where in Diss

Where in Diss police recorded crime

Public places police.uk named crimes and ASB, 3 years
At or nearReportsMostly
Car parks35663% shoplifting & theft
Petrol stations15550% shoplifting & theft
Supermarkets14277% shoplifting & theft

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 Diss. We show only these, never streets or homes.

Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.

On the roads

One person died in collisions on Diss’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 50 collisions with injuries inside Diss in five years, in which one person died (1 was a cyclist). 12 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 2 on a bicycle.

Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, so with numbers this small a single collision changes the picture; Diss’s one death is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Diss had 25.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (16.7).

1
people killed, 2021–2025
12
killed or seriously injured
4
of them on foot
2
of them on a bicycle

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 Diss’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Diss

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Diss9,59929.510.2C+
Roydon (South Norfolk)1,11715.25.7A−
Scole1,03713.83.9A
Dickleburgh1,16615.23.1A
Eye2,21123.26.3B
Rickinghall and Botesdale1,842106.2A
Gislingham1,17212.83.4A
Stradbroke1,19010.43.4A+

Diss records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Roydon (South Norfolk), 1.2 miles away, records 15.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Diss’s 29.5.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

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 Diss 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 Diss

Is Diss safe?

Police recorded 29.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Diss’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 36% of UK towns. Among 411 UK towns of 7,000 to 13,000 people, Diss is 208th from the least crime.

Is crime going up in Diss?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 74%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Diss?

Violence & sexual offences: 289 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (150) and criminal damage & arson (75), with 68 reports of anti-social behaviour.

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.