Forest Gate is a fairly safe part of a busy borough, and it records less crime than Newham as a whole. The rate is well below the borough's. Violence makes up a smaller share of it than it does nationally. Theft and car crime make up more. Being safer than Newham is a lower bar than being safe, but Forest Gate clears it comfortably.
Police records give Forest Gate about 121 crimes per 1,000 residents in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, about 17% below the Newham average. That is 8,817 recorded crimes over those twelve months. Both figures are as published, and the rate is calculated on the statistical areas the police use, which do not line up exactly with the resident count.
Across Newham the published rate over the same twelve months is about 146 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Forest Gate's 121. Forest Gate is one of the parts of the borough pulling that average down.
Forest Gate is very densely built, with about 18,000 people to the square kilometre, and about 23% of households are overcrowded. Unemployment is about 5%. In a place this tightly packed, a lot of people pass a lot of other people every day, and a crime rate per resident has a lot of foot traffic behind it.
The police's own categories show what that crime is. Violence and sexual offences make up about 25% of Forest Gate's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales, and that category covers everything from common assault without injury up. Anti-social behaviour is about 23%, against 16% nationally, and vehicle crime about 11%, against 5%. Theft from the person makes up about 9% of crime here, against about 2% nationally. Other theft, at about 7%, is close to the national share, and public order offences, at about 5% against 7%, run a little below it. So compared with the national pattern, more of Forest Gate's crime is theft and nuisance and less of it is violence. To see the pattern on a specific street, walk from Forest Gate station to the front door after dark and then look up the same street on the police's online crime map.
The Metropolitan Police Service, which polices Forest Gate along with the rest of London, charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which places it 33rd of 42 forces. That is the force's figure, set by charging decisions across the whole of London, and it tells a buyer what happens after a crime is reported, which is a separate question from how much crime there is. About 53% of the force's cases are closed with no suspect identified. For a stolen car or a lifted wallet, a crime reference number for the insurer is often the realistic outcome.
Forest Gate is one of the safer parts of Newham, and what crime it has falls more on cars and belongings than on people.