Chesham is about as safe as the rest of Buckinghamshire, give or take a few cases. Crime runs a little above the county rate. The types of crime look much like the national pattern. Car crime stands out, a bit. The weaker part comes after a crime has been reported.
Thames Valley Police recorded 1,908 crimes in Chesham in the year to May 2026, a published rate of 69 per 1,000 residents. That is about 6% above the average for the Buckinghamshire Council area. A gap that small can open or close on a handful of incidents, so the town is level with the county rather than worse than it.
Across Buckinghamshire as a whole, the rate is about 65 per 1,000, against Chesham's 69. Both numbers come from the same force over the same year, so the comparison is fair.
Chesham is fairly compact for a Chilterns town, at about 4,200 people per square kilometre on average across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment stands at about 3%, and about 5% of households are overcrowded. That makes Chesham a working valley town with its houses close together and most of its adults in jobs. A town built like that gets more reported crime than the open hills around it.
The mix stays close to the national pattern. Violence and sexual offences made up 38% of Chesham's crime, against 35% nationally, in a legal category broad enough to include common assault where nobody was hurt. Anti-social behaviour came to about 14%, below the national 16%. Other theft was 8% against 7%, and public order and criminal damage were both 7%, level with the country. Vehicle crime was the one category clearly above the national share, at 7% against 5%. In a town where about 42% of households run two or more cars, the people stealing from them are spoilt for choice.
What happens after a report is a separate question from how much crime there is, and the answer comes from the force rather than the town. Thames Valley Police charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally. That ranks it 37th of 42 forces. It closes about 37% of cases without identifying anybody. Chesham has no say in any of those numbers. They describe the force that covers it, from Milton Keynes to the Berkshire border.
Chesham comes out middling on safety, level with a well-behaved county. The crime is ordinary. The thing that sets it apart, and not in a good way, is how seldom the police get as far as a charge.