Hemel Hempstead is safe enough to live in, but it records more crime than the borough around it. Roughly one crime is recorded for every ten residents a year. That puts it well above the Dacorum average. The extra is mostly anti-social behaviour. Violence makes up about the same share of crime as it does everywhere else.
Hemel Hempstead's published crime rate was about 104 per 1,000 people in the year to May 2026, roughly 16% above the Dacorum average. That came from 11,125 recorded crimes over the same twelve months. The rate covers the whole town, from the Old Town's high street to the lanes out towards Nettleden, so a single figure stands in for some very different streets.
Dacorum as a whole recorded about 90 crimes per 1,000 people over the same year, against Hemel's 104. Most of the rest of the borough is market towns, villages and farmland, so Hemel is being compared with Berkhamsted's high street and Great Gaddesden's fields. Being the borough's only big town flatters nobody in a crime table.
Hemel is built-up for Hertfordshire, with an average of about 5,950 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is low, at about 3% at the 2021 census, and about 4% of households are overcrowded. The post-war planners drew a town of shopping parades, estates and a busy centre close together. These figures show how dense Hemel is and how it lives. They don't explain why any particular crime happens.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 34% of Hemel's recorded crime, close to the 35% across England and Wales. That legal category covers a lot, down to common assault with no injury, and Hemel's share is ordinary. The figure that stands out is anti-social behaviour, about 24% of the total here against 16% nationally. The rest of the list is close to the national pattern. Other theft is about 8% against 7%, shoplifting about 8% against 8%, criminal damage and arson about 6% against 7%, and vehicle crime about 6% against 5%. Hemel stands out for disorder and nuisance, while burglaries and assaults run close to the national pattern. To get a sense of a street, look at the police's crime map for the few roads around the house over several months, and then walk them after dark.
Charging decisions are measured across the whole force. Hertfordshire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 11% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which places it 23rd of 42 forces in England and Wales. About 40% of its cases close with no suspect identified. That figure says what tends to happen after a report anywhere in Hertfordshire. It has nothing to say about how likely a crime is on a given Hemel street.
Hemel Hempstead is below average for safety. It isn't dangerous, but there is more disorder than the rest of Dacorum and more anti-social behaviour than the national pattern, and a buyer will notice both.