Buntingford is about as safe as the rest of East Hertfordshire, and that makes it ordinary. Its crime rate matches the district's almost exactly. Violence makes up about the same share of crime here as it does nationally. Anti-social behaviour makes up a much bigger share than the national average, and shoplifting a smaller one. It is a fine place to live, with more nuisance than danger.
Police records show 672 crimes in Buntingford between June 2025 and May 2026, a published rate of about 70 per 1,000 people. That covers twelve full months, so one bad weekend can't change the picture much.
East Hertfordshire's rate over the same year was also about 70 per 1,000. The two figures are level. Buntingford is neither the trouble spot of its district nor the safest corner of it.
Averaged across its neighbourhoods, the town has about 3,300 people per square kilometre. About 2% of working-age residents are unemployed and about 2% of households are overcrowded. That describes a town where most people have work and enough room at home. These figures are background only, and none of them explains the crime rate on its own.
The mix matters more than the total. Violence and sexual offences make up about 38% of Buntingford's recorded crime, close to the 35% across England and Wales. That category is broad and includes common assault where nobody was hurt, so its size alone is no cause for alarm. Anti-social behaviour is the category that stands out, at about 27% against 16% nationally. Criminal damage and arson make up about 9%, against 7% nationally. Shoplifting is about 5% against 8% nationally, vehicle crime about 4% against 5%, and drugs about 4% against 4%. The High Street has a Co-op, a Sainsbury's Local and independent shops, and the shoplifting share is below the national figure. The thing Buntingford reports most, compared with the national mix, is behaviour that annoys people. The police.uk street map shows the last twelve months by location, and it is worth checking any street you are thinking of buying on, because a cluster of reports around a car park or a pub reads very differently from the same number spread across a whole estate.
Hertfordshire Constabulary charged a suspect in about 11% of cases in the year to May 2026, against about 12% nationally, putting it 23rd of 42 forces. About 40% of its cases were closed with no suspect identified. Those are county-wide figures for the whole force, and they tell you what happens after something is reported. That is a different question from how often it happens in Buntingford.
On safety, Buntingford is middling: level with its district, low on theft, and higher than average on the kind of nuisance that fills anti-social behaviour reports.