Crime and Safety in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
Potters Bar is the third most dangerous small town in Hertfordshire, and is among the top 20 most dangerous overall out of Hertfordshire's 140 towns, villages, and cities. The overall crime rate in Potters Bar in 2026 is 69 crimes per 1,000 people. This compares poorly to Hertfordshire's overall crime rate, coming in 15% higher than the Hertfordshire rate of 60 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Potters Bar is the 159th most dangerous small town, and the 1,052nd most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
In January 2025, Potters Bar had the worst crime rate in Hertfordshire for shoplifting, with 52 crimes reported and a crime rate of 2.0 per 1,000 daytime population. February 2025 was also a bad month for Potters Bar residents, when it was again Hertfordshire's most dangerous area for shoplifting, recording 50 crimes at a rate of 1.9 per 1,000 daytime population.
The most common crimes in Potters Bar are violence and sexual offences, with 697 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 27. This is 3.3% higher than 2025's figure of 675 offences and a difference of 0.95 from 2025's crime rate of 26. Potters Bar's least common crime is bicycle theft, with 5 offences recorded in 2026, a decrease of 50% from 2025's figure of 10 crimes.
Potters Bar 2026 Crime Scorecard
Third Most Dangerous
Small Towns, Hertfordshire
13% higher, regional crime rate
East of England
3.8% lower, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Potters Bar is 13% higher than the East of England and 3.8% lower than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Potters Bar Crime Rate Over Time
| Potters Bar | |
| East of England | |
| England, Wales & NI |
Potters Bar Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Potters Bar represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
See How Potters Bar Compares
You can compare Potters Bar's crime statistics against any other town, village, or city from across the country. Search for a location's name below to see how they stack up.
Introduction to Potters Bar's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Potters Bar up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Potters Bar's 602 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
CrimeRate Insights
Looking into a specific address in Potters Bar? CrimeRate Insights reports convert raw numbers into practical insight for any location, from single addresses and postcodes, up to major towns and cities.
Crime rates don’t happen by themselves; they follow people and patterns. Where crowds gather - near pubs and late-night venues, around the station, by supermarkets and forecourts - incidents naturally concentrate.
That doesn’t mean an area is "bad"; it usually means footfall is higher.
Your report explores these factors in a calm, non-judgemental way, putting the numbers in context and helping you spot what’s typical for places like this.
Crime Risk Scores
Potters Bar • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Potters Bar has a crime risk score of 485. This is based on analysis of 602 nearby areas within Potters Bar, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Potters Bar's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Potters Bar, crime risk scores are typically around 485, while in Hertfordshire they are average 456.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 556 (472 for Hertfordshire), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 601 (Hertfordshire 489).
Trends in Crime Risk
Potters Bar
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
No trend could be found in Potters Bar's crime risk scores over the last 10 years, and the trend may well be static.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Potters Bar's crime risk score is up by 13%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Over the last year, Potters Bar's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 1.6%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Potters Bar
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Potters Bar • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Burglary offences have a crime rate of 4.16 reports per 1,000 people in Potters Bar, which is 1.33 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 108 crime reports logged by Hertfordshire Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Hertfordshire Police recorded 141 reports of Vehicle Crime in Potters Bar, resulting in a crime rate of 5.44 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.27.
The crime rate for Shoplifting is 1.12 times the national average at 8.02 reports per 1,000. This is from 208 crime reports reported to Hertfordshire Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Potters Bar
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, though the CrimeRate Index three years ago is too low to measure, and the trend should be reviewed with caution.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.57 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 1.71 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 67% over this timeframe.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.72 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.92 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 22% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Potters Bar
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.11 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 0.36 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 208% over this timeframe.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 0.31 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Potters Bar • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Potters Bar | Hertfordshire | East of England | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 405 | 15.63 | 1.11 | 21,601 | 15.50 | 1.10 | 74,182 | 10.23 | 0.72 |
| Bicycle Theft | 5 | 0.20 | 0.65 | 917 | 0.66 | 0.90 | 5,325 | 0.72 | 0.99 |
| Burglary | 108 | 4.16 | 1.33 | 3,683 | 2.65 | 0.85 | 17,593 | 2.42 | 0.77 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 125 | 4.83 | 0.77 | 6,931 | 4.97 | 0.79 | 40,107 | 5.51 | 0.88 |
| Drugs | 87 | 3.35 | 1.08 | 3,411 | 2.45 | 0.79 | 18,935 | 2.59 | 0.84 |
| Other Crime | 31 | 1.21 | 0.65 | 1,983 | 1.41 | 0.76 | 12,241 | 1.70 | 0.92 |
| Other Theft | 243 | 9.39 | 1.65 | 8,371 | 6.01 | 1.06 | 34,703 | 4.78 | 0.84 |
| Possession of Weapons | 20 | 0.80 | 1.03 | 861 | 0.62 | 0.73 | 5,931 | 0.83 | 0.98 |
| Public Order | 89 | 3.44 | 0.59 | 5,446 | 3.91 | 0.67 | 32,088 | 4.42 | 0.76 |
| Robbery | 25 | 0.99 | 1.02 | 991 | 0.70 | 0.59 | 4,492 | 0.61 | 0.52 |
| Shoplifting | 208 | 8.02 | 1.12 | 8,328 | 5.99 | 0.84 | 43,068 | 5.94 | 0.83 |
| Theft From the Person | 13 | 0.52 | 0.57 | 954 | 0.68 | 0.44 | 3,654 | 0.52 | 0.34 |
| Vehicle Crime | 141 | 5.44 | 1.27 | 6,049 | 4.35 | 1.01 | 27,821 | 3.84 | 0.89 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 697 | 26.91 | 0.89 | 36,109 | 25.93 | 0.85 | 200,684 | 27.65 | 0.91 |
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Total Crime by Year
Potters Bar | Hertfordshire | East of England | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 1,792 | 69.26 | 0.98 | 84,034 | 60.33 | 0.84 | 446,642 | 61.53 | 0.85 |
| 2025 | 1,798 | 69.34 | 0.95 | 82,503 | 59.54 | 0.80 | 441,082 | 61.31 | 0.83 |
| 2024 | 1,579 | 61.35 | 0.83 | 73,907 | 53.85 | 0.71 | 443,460 | 62.34 | 0.83 |
| 2023 | 1,532 | 60.75 | 0.79 | 76,470 | 56.33 | 0.71 | 474,715 | 67.51 | 0.85 |
| 2022 | 1,527 | 60.26 | 0.80 | 74,426 | 55.22 | 0.72 | 471,617 | 67.78 | 0.88 |
| 2021 | 1,487 | 58.52 | 0.87 | 72,746 | 54.15 | 0.79 | 437,869 | 63.51 | 0.93 |
| 2020 | 1,578 | 61.66 | 0.85 | 82,388 | 61.55 | 0.83 | 465,376 | 67.88 | 0.92 |
| 2019 | 1,599 | 62.01 | 0.83 | 86,563 | 64.71 | 0.85 | 482,539 | 70.87 | 0.93 |
| 2018 | 1,517 | 58.73 | 0.85 | 84,008 | 63.06 | 0.89 | 439,882 | 64.91 | 0.91 |
| 2017 | 1,451 | 56.22 | 0.91 | 77,119 | 58.04 | 0.91 | 396,747 | 58.76 | 0.92 |
| 2016 | 367 | 14.23 | 0.77 | 21,894 | 16.50 | 0.87 | 116,493 | 17.30 | 0.91 |
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Potters Bar Compared to Nearby Small Towns
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Small Town | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Colney | 1,068 | 102.37 | 48% more dangerous |
| Waltham Cross | 1,254 | 98.09 | 42% more dangerous |
| Baldock | 683 | 62.64 | 10% safer |
| Potters Bar | 1,792 | 69.26 | - |
| Watford Rural | 1,517 | 61.33 | 11% safer |
| St Stephen | 1,010 | 59.50 | 14% safer |
| Sawbridgeworth | 502 | 48.33 | 30% safer |
| Ware | 1,084 | 51.30 | 26% safer |
| Aldenham | 523 | 48.20 | 30% safer |
| North Mymms | 448 | 43.98 | 37% safer |
| Abbots Langley | 1,311 | 49.94 | 28% safer |
| Sandridge | 547 | 42.04 | 39% safer |
| Berkhamsted | 826 | 39.63 | 43% safer |
| Royston | 793 | 39.52 | 43% safer |
| Tring | 535 | 37.77 | 45% safer |
| Welwyn | 320 | 33.28 | 52% safer |
| Chorleywood | 398 | 32.96 | 52% safer |
Comparing Potters Bar to the UK's Major Cities
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| City Name | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Potters Bar | 69.26 | - |
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 15% more dangerous |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 82.69 | 19% more dangerous |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 21% more dangerous |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 41% more dangerous |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 51% more dangerous |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 52% more dangerous |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 54% more dangerous |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 55% more dangerous |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 56% more dangerous |
| Westminster | 125.00 | 80% more dangerous |
CrimeRate Pro
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You can find out more, or get a CrimeRate Insights report that includes further analysis.
Offences In and Around Potters Bar's Parks & Leisure Spaces
Limited to spaces in Potters Bar that are named and have had crimes recorded within their boundaries in the 12 months to Apr 2026.
| Name | ASB | Drugs | Public Order | Robbery | VSO | All Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The F E Cleary Sports Centre | - | - | - | - | 4 | 2 |
| Morven Park | 12 | 1 | - | - | 9 | 8 |
| Oakmere Park | 17 | 1 | 6 | - | 31 | 33 |
| Potters Bar Cricket Club | 10 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 15 | 94 |
| Chauncy Avenue Allotment Site | 30 | 4 | 3 | - | 16 | 20 |
| Furzefield | 10 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 23 | 36 |
Recent Crimes in Potters Bar
The 20 most recent crime reports in Potters Bar.
| Date | Crime Type | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near St John'S Close | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Station Close | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Tempest Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Station Close | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Parking Area | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Station Close | |
| April 2026 | Other crime | On or near Willow Way | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near The Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Shoplifting | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Vehicle crime | On or near Highfield Way | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Margaret Close | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Salisbury Close | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Salisbury Close |
Methodology & Data Sources
Potters Bar Crime Report
Data Sources & Processing
Every month, CrimeRate processes crime reports from data.police.uk, the UK's official provider of open crime report data. Each crime report includes anonymised coordinates, most often "snapped" to the middle of the nearest street, or to the nearest major landmark. The reports also include the month and year the crime was reported, as well as the type of crime.
Data releases on data.police.uk happen once a month, with a two-month delay. This means that, for example, crimes reported in Potters Bar during July 2026 will typically become available in September 2026. The latest release is for Apr 2026 and was released in Jun 2026. To provide current and historical crime statistics, CrimeRate processed 61,669,232 crime reports for the latest release.
Potters Bar Data Points
For Potters Bar, CrimeRate uses the geographic boundaries provided by The Office for National Statistics in the December 2022 release of their Built Up Areas dataset, using the BUA22CD column value E63004573.
Due to the 2021 Census being conducted during a UK-wide Coronavirus lockdown, the daytime population figures released so far cannot be relied on for purposes such as comparing crime rates. Instead, CrimeRate uses Potters Bar's daytime - or "workday" - population of 18,528 from the ONS 2011 Census for calculations throughout the site.
All geographic boundaries use the full resolution - extent of the realm versions where provided to avoid missing crime reports near coastlines and rivers - the banks of the Thames in particular - that would otherwise not be included when using the clipped to the coastline datasets.
Calculating Crime Rates
CrimeRate locates the UK region, county, and town/city/village locality for each crime report, and calculates the crime rate by taking the sum of all crime reports, dividing it by the locality's daytime / "workday" population, and multiplying the result by 1,000 to get the crime rate per 1,000.
Crime Risk Score Calculations
CrimeRate calculates crime counts for local, nearby, and wider areas for every postcode in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The postcodes locations are deduplicated by a process that ensures distinct points are approximately 50 metres apart. This process removes the bias that would otherwise come from counting the same crimes several times in heavily populated areas.
Using a custom algorithm developed in-house, CrimeRate applies a crime severity weighting to each area's crime counts, based on the type of crime reported. This increases or decreases the crime count, or zeroes it out entirely, depending on the crime type. A separate crime severity rate is then calculated, standardised, and scaled to fit the crime risk score range of 1 to 1,000, with 1 being the lowest score, and 1,000 the highest.
Crime risk scores undergo further analysis per town, city, and village plus other areas including police forces and neighbourhoods. CrimeRate uses percentiles to work out the most common range of crime risk scores in each locality. This includes identifying the high and low bounds where approximately 68% of scores fall, and finding the median (50th percentile) for easy reference.
The crime types with a weight of zero are: Anti-Social Behaviour; Bicycle Theft; Other Crime; Other Theft; and Shoplifting. The highest weights to are assigned to Violence & Sexual Offences, and the lowest to Vehicle Crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Potters Bar