Borehamwood is reasonably safe, if a bit busier with crime than the rest of its borough. Its crime rate runs above the Hertsmere average. Not by much. Anti-social behaviour makes up a bigger share than it does nationally, and the more serious categories make up a little less. It is a town with a crime figure and no crime reputation.
Police records for the year from June 2025 to May 2026 logged 4,569 crimes across Borehamwood. The published rate works out at about 104 per 1,000 residents, roughly 13% above the average for Hertsmere as a whole. That covers a full twelve months, so the figure reflects the year as a whole rather than one rough weekend.
Across Hertsmere, the comparable rate is about 91 per 1,000. Borehamwood's 104 is the borough's main town set against a district that also includes villages and open country. A town with a station, a high street and studio audiences arriving most weeks will usually outscore the lanes around it.
Borehamwood packs in about 6,700 people per square kilometre on average, a density closer to outer London than to rural Hertfordshire. Unemployment was about 3% at the 2021 Census, and about 7% of households were overcrowded. None of that explains a crime rate on its own. It does describe a compact post-war town where people live close together and everyone notices next door's music.
The mix is close to the national pattern. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal category that includes common assault without injury, make up about 33% of Borehamwood's recorded crime against about 35% across England and Wales, so slightly below. Anti-social behaviour is the one category that stands out, at about 21% against 16% nationally. Other theft runs at about 7%, level with the country. Shoplifting is about 7% against 8%, public order about 6% against 7%, and criminal damage and arson about 6% against 7%. Borehamwood's excess is mostly made up of noise, nuisance and the late-night stuff the national figures have less of. To see what that looks like on a particular road, the police's online crime map shows reports down to street level, and a month of it will tell you more than the borough average does.
Hertfordshire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 11% of cases across the county, against about 12% nationally, putting it 23rd of 42 forces. About 40% of cases are closed with no suspect identified. Those are force-wide figures for every town and village Hertfordshire Constabulary covers. They answer whether someone will be caught, which is a separate question from whether the town is safe, and the answer is the same middling one most of England gets.
On safety, Borehamwood lands in the middle. It is a bit busier than its borough, a bit rowdier than the national mix, and much less dramatic than anything filmed at the studios.