Mostly yes, but it records more crime than the district around it, which surprises people who came for the boats. The published rate sits about a sixth above the local-authority average. The absolute numbers are small. The town it is being compared to is very quiet indeed. Nobody sensible would call Dartmouth rough, and nobody honest would call it the calmest place in the South Hams either.
Police.uk recorded 418 crimes in the area in the year to May 2026, which works out at a published rate of roughly 57 per thousand residents. That figure sits around 17% above the South Hams average. Both numbers are published as they stand, and the rate uses a statistical population base rather than a simple headcount, so it is not something to reverse-engineer from the total on the back of an envelope.
The comparison is more useful with both figures in view. The South Hams as a whole records about 49 recorded crimes per thousand residents over the same twelve months, against Dartmouth's 57. The gap is real, and it is a gap measured against one of the gentler local authorities in England. Being noisier than the South Hams is roughly the criminal equivalent of being the rowdiest table at a garden centre cafe.
What sort of place produces those numbers is worth setting out, without pretending any of it causes anything. Population density across the area's neighbourhoods averages around 3,166 people per square kilometre, which is town density rather than village density, concentrated into a grid of narrow lanes on a hillside. Unemployment runs at about 2%, and overcrowded households at about 1%. Those are not the readings of a place under economic strain. They are the readings of a compact, comfortable, busy town.
The category mix comes with a warning that matters more than the percentages. With 418 crimes spread across twelve categories, a handful of incidents shifts a share by several points, so this is a snapshot rather than a settled characteristic of the town. On that basis, violence and sexual offences account for about 46% of recorded crime locally against roughly 35% across England and Wales, a category that spans a wide statutory range including common assault where nobody is injured, and one that leads the table almost everywhere. Other theft runs at about 11% locally against roughly 7% nationally, and criminal damage and arson at about 10% against roughly 7%. Anti-social behaviour goes the other way, at about 11% locally against roughly 16% nationally, as does shoplifting at about 5% against roughly 8%. Public order is close to level, about 6% locally against roughly 7%.
What happens after a report is a separate question from how safe the streets are, and the answer is not flattering to anyone. Devon and Cornwall Police charged a suspect in about 8% of cases in the year to May 2026, against roughly 12% nationally, placing the force 42nd of 42 forces on that measure. About 26% of cases were closed with no suspect identified at all. That is a force-wide figure covering everything from Land's End to the Somerset border, not a Dartmouth number, and it says nothing about your street. It says a good deal about what to expect if your outboard motor goes missing.
Safety here lands below par rather than anywhere near alarming: a low-crime district with a town in it that runs busier than its neighbours, and a police force that is unlikely to resolve the thing you report. Walk home from the quay without a second thought. Lock the shed.