Yes, and comfortably so for Medway. Recorded crime runs well below the borough's rate. The village is small, settled and owner-occupied. The loudest thing most nights is the wind. Cliffe is safe; the people who worry otherwise are usually reading the Medway headline and not the village line.
In the year to May 2026, Cliffe's published crime rate was about 66 crimes per 1,000 people, roughly 39% below the Medway average. The total over that year came to 189 recorded crimes. Both are published figures for the statistical areas that make up the village, which is why the rate should be read as given rather than rebuilt from the population on the sign.
Side by side, the comparison is plainer. Medway as a whole recorded about 108 crimes per 1,000 people over the same period, against Cliffe's 66. A buyer who has been put off by the borough's reputation is judging a village by the company it keeps on the council tax bill.
The neighbourhood texture fits a quiet place. The average population density across the village's areas is about 2,950 people per square kilometre, unemployment sits at about 3%, and about 3% of households are overcrowded. None of that explains crime on its own, and none of it is offered as a cause. It describes a village with room, work and not much pressure on space.
The crime mix needs handling with care, because the totals are small enough that a few incidents move a share by several points. Violence and sexual offences made up about 39% of recorded crime, against about 35% nationally, which is close to the norm; it is the largest category almost everywhere and covers a wide legal range, including common assault with no injury. Anti-social behaviour was about 18%, against 16% nationally, again close. Burglary stands out at about 12% against about 4% nationally, and criminal damage and arson at about 10% against 7%. On a base this small, the burglary share is a reason to fit decent locks and ask the neighbours, not a settled fact about the village. A single busy month can write that kind of number, and a quiet year can erase it.
What happens after a report is a force-wide question, not a village one. Kent Police charges a suspect in about 16% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which places it 6th of 42 forces in England and Wales over the year to May 2026. In about 36% of cases the investigation closes with no suspect identified. That is the honest answer to "will they catch them", and it applies across the county, not to Cliffe's streets in particular. It measures policing, not safety, and the two should not be blended into one comforting number.
Cliffe is one of the safer corners of Medway by a clear margin, and the rate is the figure to trust over the rumour. Lock the shed, meet the neighbours, and sleep.