Photo: David Martin · CC BY-SA 2.0Dickens Heath records vehicle crime at 3.7 times the rate of a typical town its size
Police recorded 36 cases of vehicle crime in Dickens Heath in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 7.5 per 1,000 against a typical 2. Overall, Dickens Heath grades B− for safety (#6 of 35 in West Midlands): close to the middle of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Recorded violent and sexual offences come to about one a year for every 51 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Dickens Heath
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% more violent crime per resident in Dickens Heath 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 fell 13% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 706 UK towns of 3,000 to 6,000 people, Dickens Heath has the 341st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Sutton on Sea and Trusthorpe, Long Lawford and Hartley Wintney, higher than Lisnaskea, Pulborough and Marchwood. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Dickens Heath’s B−
A fairly firm grade. Built on 456 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dickens Heath 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, Dickens Heath runs highest on vehicle crime (7.5 per 1,000 against 2). Criminal damage & arson and other theft sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 98 | 20.4 | 22.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 36 | 7.5 | 2 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 17 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 14 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| Other theft | not graded | 12 | 2.5 | 3.2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 7 | 1.5 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 7 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 7 | 1.5 | 8.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 6 | 1.3 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 3 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 2 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
“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.
How Dickens Heath’s neighbourhoods rank in England
0% 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.
Dickens Heath’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.
Police in Dickens Heath identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 78% of Dickens Heath’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 6% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (77% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 1% of violent and 2% 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. 127 crimes.
Violent crime up 6% in a year, while towns its size held steady
“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 -13% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -22% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -71% (towns its size +0%).
Dickens Heath is 341st of 706 UK towns of 3,000 to 6,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 338 | Lisnaskea Fermanagh and Omagh | 3,020 | 22.1 | 9.5 | 9.7 | B− |
| 339 | Pulborough West Sussex | 3,651 | 19.8 | 11.8 | 9.2 | B− |
| 340 | Marchwood Hampshire | 5,776 | 22.9 | 8.8 | 5.6 | B− |
| 341 | Dickens Heath West Midlands | 4,797 | 19.6 | 12.1 | 4.3 | B− |
| 342 | Harwell Oxfordshire | 3,067 | 24 | 7.7 | 3.2 | B− |
| 343 | Kirton in Lindsey Lincolnshire | 3,066 | 22.4 | 9.4 | 4.9 | B− |
| 344 | Tywyn Gwynedd | 3,134 | 26 | 5.9 | 7.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 706 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | 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 Dickens Heath, and others in West Midlands.
Crime in Dickens Heath 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 13 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 4 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Dickens Heath’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 4 collisions with injuries inside Dickens Heath in five years. 1 person was killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Dickens Heath is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Dickens Heath’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 4 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Dickens Heath had 1.
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 Dickens Heath’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Dickens Heath
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dickens Heath | 4,797 | 19.6 | 12.1 | B− |
| Tidbury Green | 1,552 | 30.1 | 11 | C |
| Cheswick Green | 2,743 | 14 | 11.2 | B+ |
| Wythall | 2,077 | 11.3 | 15.1 | B+ |
| Hollywood | 6,944 | 17.3 | 12.6 | B |
| Solihull | 107,754 | 28.4 | 19.2 | C− |
| Hockley Heath | 1,899 | 14.6 | 18.4 | B− |
| Knowle and Dorridge | 19,323 | 15.1 | 12 | B |
Dickens Heath records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Cheswick Green, 1 miles away, records 14 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Dickens Heath’s 19.6.
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 Dickens Heath 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 Dickens Heath
Is Dickens Heath safe?
Police recorded 19.6 violent and sexual offences and 12.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Dickens Heath’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 52% of UK towns. Among 706 UK towns of 3,000 to 6,000 people, Dickens Heath is 341st from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Dickens Heath?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 13%, shoplifting and theft fell 22% and anti-social behaviour fell 71%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Dickens Heath?
Violence & sexual offences: 98 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came vehicle crime (36) and criminal damage & arson (17), with 7 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Dickens Heath compare with Birmingham?
Birmingham records 62.8 violent and sexual offences and 28.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Dickens Heath’s 19.6 and 12.1, 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.