Erith is less safe than the rest of Bexley, and the gap is large enough to matter. Recorded crime runs about a quarter above the borough's rate. The violence share looks ordinary. Anti-social behaviour and vehicle crime both run ahead of the national pattern. Erith has the town-centre streets of a much bigger place, and it has the crime figures of one too.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 4,592 crimes in Erith in the twelve months from June 2025 to May 2026. The published rate for those months is about 99 crimes per 1,000 residents. That is roughly 23% above the average for the London Borough of Bexley.
Over the same year, Bexley as a whole recorded about 81 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Erith's 99. Bexleyheath, Belvedere and the rest of the borough are what drag the average down to 81.
Erith is also packed far more tightly than a typical suburb. It averages about 8,400 people per square kilometre. About 10% of households are overcrowded, and unemployment was about 4% at the 2021 Census. These describe how the neighbourhood lives. None of them explains the crime figures alone.
Over those twelve months, violence and sexual offences made up about 35% of Erith's recorded crime. The national share is also about 35%, so that category tracks the rest of England and Wales. It is also a wide legal grouping, covering everything up to common assault without injury. The categories that stand out are anti-social behaviour, about 20% here against 16% nationally, and vehicle crime, about 7% against 5%. Criminal damage and arson make up about 8% against 7%. Public order offences and other theft each come to about 6%, a little below the national 7%. The extra crime in Erith is mostly nuisance and cars. To see which streets it gathers on, check the national police website's street-level crime map for the exact road and its neighbours over the past year. Nothing else here gives a closer view.
What happens after a crime is reported is a separate question from how much crime there is. Across its whole area, the Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally. That puts it 33rd of 42 forces in England and Wales. About 53% of its cases close with nobody identified. Those are force-wide figures and say nothing about Erith's own cases. If something is stolen in Erith, your insurer is more likely to ring back than a detective.
Safety is a weak point for Erith, with crime above the rest of Bexley and the Metropolitan Police's results after a report below the national rate. Pick the street with the crime map open as well as the floor plan.