No, High Wycombe is not one of Buckinghamshire's safe places. It records roughly a hundred crimes for every thousand residents. The county as a whole records about two-thirds of that. Violence is at about the national share. Shoplifting is the category that stands out.
Thames Valley Police published a rate of about 99 crimes per 1,000 residents for High Wycombe in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a total of 8,805 recorded crimes. That rate is 51% above the Buckinghamshire average. It is a town-wide figure, averaged across 51 neighbourhood areas, so some streets are well below it and some well above. The police's street-level crime map shows the road you are thinking of buying on, and it is worth an evening on the sofa.
Over the same year, Buckinghamshire as a whole recorded about 65 crimes per 1,000 residents, against High Wycombe's 99. The county figure includes Penn, Naphill and every Chiltern village where little happens after dark. Move down the hill into the town and you have moved somewhere with two shopping centres, a football ground and a bus station, and the crime figure includes all of them.
High Wycombe is a dense town for Buckinghamshire, with around 5,700 people per square kilometre on average across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 3% and about 7% of households are overcrowded. That is the profile of a working town in a narrow valley, with the population packed in where the land is flat.
Violence and sexual offences make up 36% of recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales, so this category is close to the national pattern. It covers a wide legal range, including common assault where nobody was injured. Anti-social behaviour is 12% here against 16% nationally, which is lower. Shoplifting is 12% against 8%, and other theft 8% against 7%. Public order offences are 8% against 7%, and criminal damage and arson 7% against 7%. The mix looks like any busy town's. There is more of it, and the shops get more than their share.
Thames Valley Police charges a suspect in about 9% of cases across its whole force area, against about 12% nationally, and it ranks 37th of 42 forces on that measure over the year to May 2026. About 37% of its cases are closed with no suspect identified. Those are force-wide figures covering a much larger area than High Wycombe. They tell a victim what happens after the report, and they say nothing about how often a crime happens in the first place.
On safety, High Wycombe is poor for Buckinghamshire. The crime rate is clearly above the county's, and a buyer here is choosing between streets in a busy town.