Crime rates in the City of London Police area

By type of offence

Recorded offences in the 12 months to July 2026, with the change on the 12 months before.

Set against the national mix of offences, theft from the person stands out in the City of London Police area: it accounts for roughly 7 times the share of recorded crime it does nationally, with bicycle theft and other theft also over-represented. In the other direction, anti-social behaviour, vehicle crime, and other crime all make up well under their national share.

Home Office recorded crime, data.police.uk. Rates use ONS mid-year population estimates (unknown residents). Categories are the Home Office crime types as published; they are not comparable with court or conviction figures.

What happened to those crimes

Police recorded 8,762 offences other than anti-social behaviour in City of London Police in the year to July 2026. By the time this data was published, about 51% had been closed with no suspect identified and 21% closed because a prosecution was not possible or not pursued. Around 13% had led to a charge, caution or other formal action, and 15% were still open.

Outcomes describe where each investigation stood when the data was published, so recent offences are naturally still open and the closed shares will edge up as cases conclude. Anti-social behaviour is left out entirely: police record no outcomes for it, and counting it would quietly flatter every percentage here. "Formal action" spans charges, summonses, cautions, penalty notices and community resolutions.

Over time

Recorded crime in the City of London Police area peaked at 10,032 offences in 2019; the latest 12 months, at 8,933, are about 11% below that peak. That works out at roughly 24 a day.

Download every month as CSV, including which months each force filed.

Time of year

Recorded crime here peaks in October, about 18% above its quietest month, January.

Stop and search

City of London Police carried out 1,623 stop and searches in the 12 months to July 2026, 107.4 per 1,000 people in the force area. 22.6% ended in an arrest or another sanction, against 28.9% across England and Wales. The rest found nothing.

What officers were looking for

Who was searched

Searches set against the number of residents in each group, which is the comparison this question is actually about. A share on its own ("a third of searches were of Asian people") says as much about who lives in the force area as about how it polices.

The two columns are measured differently and that matters. The police record officer-defined ethnicity, meaning what the officer perceived at the time of the search, while the residents column is Census 2021, which is what people say they are. They are close enough to divide and not the same measurement. "Not stated" is searches where no perception was recorded; the census has no such group, so those searches get a count and no rate rather than being folded into a group they may not belong to.

A rate per resident is also not a rate per person present. Searches happen where people are, and a force area's daytime and night-time population is not its resident population, which pushes the rate up for any group over-represented among people travelling into the places searches happen. This table is a starting point for a question, not the answer to one, and the disparity it shows is documented nationally and is not particular to this force.

Home Office stop and search data, published at data.police.uk alongside the crime files. "Found something" counts searches ending in an arrest or another sanction; the rest ended in no further action. Rates use the resident population of the force area, so a force covering a city that fills up by day searches a population larger than the one it is divided by.

Every force compared, and how searches break down by the ethnicity officers recorded, is on stop and search by ethnicity.

When searches happen in the City of London Police area

Of the 6,053 searches recorded in the City of London Police area and timed from August 2023 to July 2026, the busiest hour was 8pm and the quietest 9am. 27% of them fell between 10pm and 4am, which is about the national share of 29%.

City of London Police England and Wales, for comparison. Both drawn as each one's own share of its searches, so a small area and the country can be put side by side.

Counted on the hour the search happened, in local time. Every search the force filed is counted, because these figures come from the force's own returns rather than from where each search happened. Three years are used rather than one because a single year of one area is too thin to show a shape. Forces filing a date with no time are excluded entirely. Stop and search by time of day sets out the national picture and the method.

Who oversees policing in the City of London Police area

City of London Police has no elected police and crime commissioner. It is overseen by the City of London Corporation, through its Police Authority Board.

Questions

Is crime in the City of London Police area going up or down?

In the City of London Police area, the latest 12 months are 2.2% lower than the 12 before. Over the full series, recorded crime here peaked at 10,032 offences in 2019 and the current total is about 11% below it.

What is the most common crime in the City of London Police area?

The most commonly recorded offence in the City of London Police area is other theft, with 2,028 offences in the 12 months to July 2026 (23% of all recorded crime). The next most common is violence and sexual offences, with 1,504.

Where does this come from?

Police recorded crime open data, published at data.police.uk by the Home Office under the Open Government Licence. It covers offences the police recorded, which is not the same as offences committed: crimes that are never reported never appear. Rates use ONS mid-year population estimates. How the figures work sets out the calculation, the reporting lag and every known gap.