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Medway Counts — Medway, in numbers.Local help →

Medway, in numbers

Crime and safety

Medway council area. Every figure carries its own date.

What the recorded figures show, and what they cannot tell us.

Recorded crime and population

A larger population can mean more recorded offences even when the number of offences per resident falls. Read the total and the rate together.

A checked recorded-crime total and matching population rate for this exact council area are not available in this collection yet. The local mapped records below remain a separate measure.

Can we test the population theory over 30 years?

Only where the offence definitions, recording practices and area boundaries are comparable. Changes in reporting, police recording and the types of crime matter too. We do not join incompatible series or invent missing years.

No observation has yet passed the count, geography and population checks for display.

  • 2002/03: Series starts after April 2002 recording-standard introduction; not comparable to pre-2002 records.
  • 2013/14: Offence grouping revision; source back-series retained. Recording practice changes also affect comparisons.
  • 2017/18: Burglary classification changed; broad total retained but detailed groups need review.
  • 2023/24: Burglary subcategories and recording-rule changes require interpretation review.

A comparable 30-year crime-and-population trend has not been established for this area.

For example, if offences rose by 10% while population rose by 20%, offences per resident would fall by about 8%. This is an illustration, not a finding about this area.

People commuting or visiting can also affect offences recorded in a place. The resident population is a useful common denominator, but does not count everyone present.

What could help? Follow the types and locations of repeated problems, check residents’ experiences, and assess the response. Area population totals do not identify who commits offences.

Local issues and proposed responses →

Police-recorded locations for Medway council area. Locations are approximate; these are not all crimes or a measure of personal risk.

23,720 mapped crimes

September 2025 to August 2026. Compared with 25,904 in the previous 12 months. Anti-social behaviour is counted separately.

Mapped crime over time

September 2024 to August 2026

Medway council area · mapped crimes

Reviewed figures: September 2024 to August 2026. This reviewed record covers fewer than 30 years, so the chart opens on all of it.

Shown on this chart: 2,097 mapped crimes in September 2024; 2,126 mapped crimes in August 2026. These are recorded counts; check the coverage notes before comparing periods.

The line joins consecutive published observations.

Monthly crime and anti-social behaviour
Recorded locations by month · Medway
MonthMapped crimeAnti-social behaviour
September 20242,097374
October 20242,150374
November 20242,079302
December 20242,032274
January 20252,185247
February 20251,978296
March 20252,275436
April 20252,197503
May 20252,342541
June 20252,212523
July 20252,218674
August 20252,139587
September 20251,866428
October 20251,948451
November 20251,829439
December 20251,989380
January 20261,910408
February 20261,814411
March 20262,164533
April 20262,012541
May 20262,005603
June 20261,912561
July 20262,145775
August 20262,126710
Crime categories in the latest complete year
September 2025 to August 2026 · Medway
CategoryMapped crimes
violent crime10,939
criminal damage arson2,522
shoplifting2,162
other theft2,043
public order1,315
vehicle crime1,219
drugs983
other crime885
burglary671
possession of weapons333
robbery304
bicycle theft211
theft from the person133
What these numbers include

Approximate published locations, not every crime or personal risk.

Anti-social behaviour is separate. Transport police and unusable locations excluded.

An empty ward count means no mapped rows in the complete required force files; it does not prove that no crime occurred.

These are retrieved mapped records, not a guarantee of complete crime reporting. Approximate locations and unmapped incidents limit comparisons.

Missing ward-months invalidate totals and changes. Busy centres attract visitors, so residential population is not a measure of the number of people exposed.

Police data and method →

What could improve local safety →