Collier Row is safer than the borough around it, though not by enough to forget about locking the car. Crime is lower here than across Havering. Violence makes up less of it than it does nationally. Nuisance and vehicle crime make up more. The worst of it tends to land on a parked car or on a neighbour's nerves.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 2,813 crimes in Collier Row in the year to May 2026, which works out at a published rate of about 83 per 1,000 residents. That's about 12% below the Havering average.
Across Havering as a whole, the rate is about 94 crimes per 1,000 residents, so Collier Row's 83 is lower by a clear but modest margin. The comparison is with an outer London borough, though, not a country village, and anyone moving out from inner London will notice the difference more than anyone moving in from Essex.
The area is built up. The average density is about 6,600 people per square kilometre, roughly what you'd expect of a neighbourhood that is mostly semis and terraces from wall to wall. Unemployment is about 4%, and about 7% of households are overcrowded. None of that explains the crime figures. It describes a busy, working suburb with houses close together.
The mix of crime matters more than the total. Violence and sexual offences make up about 30% of recorded crime here, compared with about 35% across England and Wales. That category is the largest almost everywhere and includes common assault without injury, so Collier Row actually comes in below the national share. Anti-social behaviour makes up about 21%, compared with 16% nationally, and vehicle crime about 8% against 5%. Other theft is about 8% against 7%, and shoplifting about 7% against 8%, so both are close to the national pattern. Drug offences make up about 6% here and about 4% nationally. The categories that run above the national share are the ones that wake people at night or leave a broken window on the drive. Of the serious categories, none stands out. The police.uk street map shows the past few months of reports around any address on a shortlist, which is a useful way to tell whether a house is near the shops at the central crossroads or on one of the quieter streets further out.
What happens after a report is a different question, and the answer covers the whole of London. The Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which places it 33rd of 42 forces. About 53% of its cases are closed without anyone being identified. A stolen catalytic converter here is much more likely to go into an insurance claim than to come up in court.
Collier Row is safer than its borough and modest about it. Its main problems are nuisance and cars, and it has little in the way of real danger.