Photo: Dr Neil Clifton · CC BY-SA 2.0Per resident, Otley sees less crime than 69% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Weighing it all, Otley earns C+ for safety (#21 of 91 in West Yorkshire), with close to the middle of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026. Still, violent crime was down 7% in a year. Police recorded 56 cases of burglary locally in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 3.8 per 1,000 against a typical 2.4.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Otley
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% less violent crime per resident in Otley 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 25% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 372 UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000 people, Otley has the 136th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Glossop, Whitwick and Darton, higher than Desborough, Ely and Humberston and New Waltham. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Otley’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 1,610 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Otley 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, Otley runs highest on burglary (3.8 per 1,000 against 2.4), vehicle crime (4 per 1,000 against 2.8) and shoplifting (8.5 per 1,000 against 6.1). Violence & sexual offences and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 338 | 23.2 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 123 | 8.5 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 120 | 8.2 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 75 | 5.2 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 74 | 5.1 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 59 | 4.1 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 58 | 4 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 56 | 3.8 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 27 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 24 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 8 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 7 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 5 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.3 | 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 Otley’s neighbourhoods rank in England
58% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 11% 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.
Otley’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 Otley 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 -7% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +25% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +71% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +20% (towns its size -4%).
Towns its size: Otley comes 136th of 372
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 69 | Ilkley West Yorkshire | 14,852 | 18.1 | 12.7 | 13 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 111 | Garforth West Yorkshire | 15,148 | 23 | 10.9 | 7.9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 118 | Honley West Yorkshire | 14,399 | 26.4 | 8.6 | 5.3 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 133 | Desborough Northamptonshire | 11,899 | 25.6 | 11 | 8 | C+ |
| 134 | Ely Cambridgeshire | 19,185 | 25.5 | 11.3 | 16.2 | C+ |
| 135 | Humberston and New Waltham Lincolnshire | 14,861 | 25.9 | 11 | 6.4 | C+ |
| 136 | Otley West Yorkshire | 14,549 | 25.6 | 11.3 | 9.3 | C+ |
| 137 | Tavistock Devon | 12,676 | 27.9 | 9.1 | 9.2 | C+ |
| 138 | Great Dunmow Essex | 10,395 | 24 | 13 | 6.8 | C+ |
| 139 | Westbury Wiltshire | 16,394 | 26.2 | 11 | 6.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 169 | Kippax West Yorkshire | 10,299 | 27.4 | 12.7 | 6.7 | 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 Otley, and others in West Yorkshire.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Otley’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 4% 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. 540 crimes.
For every 1,000 residents, about 24 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
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 13 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Where in Otley police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 94 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 80 | 26% violent |
| College and university buildings | 27 | 70% violent |
| Shopping areas | 26 | 35% 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 Otley. 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 Otley’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 61 collisions with injuries inside Otley in five years. 29 people were killed or seriously injured: 9 on foot and 4 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 Otley’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Otley’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Otley had 40.0 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).
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 Otley’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Otley
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otley | 14,549 | 25.6 | 11.3 | C+ |
| Menston | 5,905 | 20.5 | 9.1 | B |
| Burley in Wharfedale | 6,806 | 15.1 | 8.6 | B+ |
| Guiseley | 12,462 | 30 | 13 | C |
| Pool-in-Wharfedale | 1,991 | 11.7 | 5.5 | A |
| Yeadon | 14,273 | 38.2 | 18 | C− |
| Bramhope | 3,593 | 18.2 | 9.4 | B |
| Rawdon | 6,738 | 21.7 | 13.6 | C+ |
Otley records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Guiseley and Yeadon record more. Menston, 2.2 miles away, records 20.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Otley’s 25.6.
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 Otley 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 Otley
Is Otley safe?
Police recorded 25.6 violent and sexual offences and 11.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Otley’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 41% of UK towns. Among 372 UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000 people, Otley is 136th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Otley?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 25%, shoplifting and theft rose 71% and anti-social behaviour rose 20%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Otley?
Violence & sexual offences: 338 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (123) and public order (75), with 120 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Otley compare with Bradford?
Bradford records 72.2 violent and sexual offences and 28.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Otley’s 25.6 and 11.3, 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.