Colindale is about as safe as the rest of Barnet, slightly worse on the numbers, and mostly in ways that are a nuisance more than a danger. Its crime rate is a little above the borough's. Violent offences make up a smaller share of crime here than nationally. Antisocial behaviour and car crime make up a larger one. The numbers describe a busy, crowded district, and for most residents the worst of it is irritation.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 10,217 crimes in the area in the year from June 2025 to May 2026. The published rate is about 104 crimes per 1,000 residents, roughly 7% above the average for the London Borough of Barnet.
Barnet as a whole runs at about 97 crimes per 1,000 residents, so the gap with Colindale's 104 is a few crimes per thousand people. The comparison is a little lopsided. Colindale's main shopping street is the A5, the far pavement of which is in Brent, and this page's area also covers Kingsbury on the Brent side. Part of the area is being compared with a borough it isn't in.
Colindale is densely built, with about 16,000 people per square kilometre on average across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment was about 4% at the 2021 census, and about 16% of households were overcrowded. Those figures describe what the place is like, not what causes its crime. Within living memory a good part of this ground was Hendon Aerodrome, and it now has some of the most closely packed homes in Barnet.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 25% of recorded crime here, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category covers everything from serious assault down to common assault without injury, and it is the largest category almost everywhere. Antisocial behaviour is about 24%, against 16% nationally. Vehicle crime is about 8% against 5%. Shoplifting is about 8%, almost exactly the national share, and other theft and public order are both close to the national figures, at about 6% each against 7%. With car crime above the national share, if you are buying a flat with parking, ask whether the car park is gated and covered by cameras.
When a crime is reported, the Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases across London, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 33rd of 42 forces in the year to May 2026. In about 53% of the Met's cases nobody is identified at all. Those are force-wide figures for the whole of London. They say nothing about how safe Colindale is, only how likely a reported crime is to end in a charge.
Colindale is middling for safety. It is a busy district with more than its share of antisocial behaviour and car crime, and serious crime is no more common here than it is nationally.