Photo: Jpb1301 · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Brownhills records more crime than 93% of UK towns
Of all the kinds of crime, robbery is where Brownhills departs most from towns its size: 2.2 per 1,000 against 0.5. Its Safety Grade is D, on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #18 of 35 in West Midlands. Recorded violence rose 17% in a year. Annual rates stand at 44.3 violent and sexual offences and 24.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every thousand residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Brownhills
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% more violent crime per resident in Brownhills 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 268 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000 people, Brownhills has the 237th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Fleetwood, Truro and Cradley Heath, higher than Whitehaven, Camborne and Darwen. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Brownhills’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 4,394 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Brownhills 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
Against the typical town its size, Brownhills runs highest on robbery (2.2 per 1,000 against 0.5), vehicle crime (10.1 per 1,000 against 2.8) and burglary (5.1 per 1,000 against 2.4). Drugs and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 966 | 45.5 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 279 | 13.1 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 246 | 11.6 | 6.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 214 | 10.1 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 133 | 6.3 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 121 | 5.7 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 109 | 5.1 | 2.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 108 | 5.1 | 12.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 57 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 46 | 2.2 | 0.5 |
| Drugs | not graded | 33 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 29 | 1.4 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 15 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 13 | 0.6 | 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.
Towns its size: Brownhills comes 237th of 268
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Streetly West Midlands | 16,790 | 11.2 | 9 | 5.3 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 20 | Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands | 19,323 | 15.1 | 12 | 7.1 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 122 | Aldridge West Midlands | 15,827 | 24 | 18.4 | 15.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 195 | Coseley West Midlands | 25,206 | 35.8 | 19.6 | 9.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 234 | Whitehaven Cumbria | 22,952 | 52 | 14.5 | 10 | D |
| 235 | Camborne Cornwall | 20,445 | 50 | 17.1 | 11.3 | D |
| 236 | Darwen Lancashire | 27,897 | 48 | 19.3 | 10.3 | D |
| 237 | Brownhills West Midlands | 21,238 | 44.3 | 24.7 | 20.8 | D |
| 238 | Staines-upon-Thames Surrey | 21,327 | 49.9 | 19.5 | 28.5 | D |
| 239 | Littlehampton West Sussex | 19,060 | 49.9 | 19.9 | 23.1 | D |
| 240 | Colne Lancashire | 18,914 | 49.5 | 21.2 | 16.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 268 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Brownhills, and others in West Midlands.
How crime in Brownhills 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 +17% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +9% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +1% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -58% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Brownhills 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 27 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 20 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police in Brownhills identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Brownhills’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (73% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% 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. 1,369 crimes.
How Brownhills’s neighbourhoods rank in England
4% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 24% 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.
Brownhills’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.
Where in Brownhills police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,014 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 388 | 30% anti-social behaviour |
| Shopping areas | 30 | 37% homes & vehicles |
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 Brownhills. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Two people died in collisions on Brownhills’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 113 collisions with injuries inside Brownhills in five years, in which two people died (1 was a pedestrian). 32 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 3 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 Brownhills’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Brownhills’s own rate (1.9) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Brownhills had 30.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 13% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Brownhills’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Brownhills
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brownhills | 21,238 | 44.3 | 24.7 | D |
| Clayhanger | 1,698 | 20.6 | 11 | B− |
| Stonnall | 1,340 | 14.2 | 9.2 | B+ |
| Pelsall | 10,455 | 25.5 | 17.2 | C |
| Rushall and Shelfield | 12,844 | 32.5 | 19.4 | C− |
| Aldridge | 15,827 | 24 | 18.4 | C |
| Burntwood | 27,891 | 27.5 | 10.5 | C+ |
| Norton Canes | 8,155 | 37.1 | 13.2 | C− |
Brownhills records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Clayhanger, 0.7 miles away, records 20.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Brownhills’s 44.3.
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 Brownhills 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 Brownhills
Is Brownhills safe?
Police recorded 44.3 violent and sexual offences and 24.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Brownhills’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 7% of UK towns. Among 268 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000 people, Brownhills is 237th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Brownhills?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 9%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 58%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Brownhills?
Violence & sexual offences: 966 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (279) and criminal damage & arson (246), with 108 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Brownhills compare with Walsall?
Walsall records 62.9 violent and sexual offences and 26.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Brownhills’s 44.3 and 24.7, 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.