Westminster had London’s biggest fall in theft from the person, down 42.4%

Recorded theft from the person fell further in Westminster than in any other London borough in the year to August 2026. Westminster recorded 17,590 offences between September 2025 and August 2026, down 42.4% from 30,550 in the previous twelve months.

Which London boroughs saw the biggest fall in theft from the person

Kensington and Chelsea had the next largest drop, from 2,593 to 1,598 offences, a fall of 38.4%. Hammersmith and Fulham came third, down 32.2% from 1,235 to 837. Waltham Forest and Haringey followed closely, down 31.0% and 30.7%.

Camden records more of these offences than most boroughs. Its count fell 29.6% to 6,204. Islington was down 21.1% to 3,323.

Southwark the only borough where theft from the person rose

Southwark went the other way. It recorded 7,318 offences in the latest twelve months against 6,903 a year earlier. That is a rise of 6.0% and the only increase in the table. Southwark now has the second highest count in London after Westminster. In the earlier period Camden recorded more than Southwark, so the two have swapped places.

Two other boroughs barely moved. Tower Hamlets was down 1.0%, from 2,915 to 2,887, and Barking and Dagenham was down 2.8%, from 775 to 753. Lambeth, which has one of the higher counts, fell 9.0% to 4,905.

London theft from the person figures for the year to August 2026

Across the 32 boroughs covered by the Metropolitan Police, recorded theft from the person fell from 95,733 to 72,085. That is a drop of 24.7%, or roughly a quarter. It fell in 31 of 32 boroughs. Counts vary widely from borough to borough. Westminster’s 17,590 is the highest in the table and Sutton’s 230 is the lowest.

Most boroughs fell by less than the biggest movers but still went down clearly. Harrow and Wandsworth were both down 25.0%, and Brent and Lewisham were both down 20.5%. Hackney, with 4,103 offences, fell 14.6%. Newham, with 3,932, fell 7.4%.

How2London worked these figures out from MPS Recorded Crime: Geographic Breakdown, the borough-level crime file the Metropolitan Police Service publishes on the London Datastore. We added up every offence recorded as theft from the person in each borough for both periods and compared the totals.

The figures have limits. They count offences the police recorded, which is not the same as every theft that happened. A change in how crimes are recorded, or in how many people report them, moves the numbers as well. They are also raw counts, with no adjustment for how many people live in, work in or pass through a borough. That is why busy central boroughs such as Westminster sit far above quieter ones such as Sutton. A lower count does not on its own mean a street is safer. The City of London has its own police force, so it has no row in this data.