Knebworth is a safe village, and safer than the district around it. Crime runs below the North Hertfordshire rate. Unemployment is close to zero. Homes are rarely overcrowded. Its police record looks like a commuter village's, because that is what it is.
Police.uk recorded 294 crimes in Knebworth in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a published rate of about 54 per 1,000 residents. That puts the village below the average for its local authority over the same twelve months. The rate is the published figure and is calculated on its own statistical population, so dividing the crime count by the number of residents will not give the same answer.
North Hertfordshire as a whole ran at about 67 crimes per 1,000 residents over the same period, so Knebworth's 54 sits well under the district figure. The district takes in Hitchin's town centre and the rest of the council's busier ground, and the village is not where that higher average is coming from.
Neighbourhood life here is fairly easy-going. Knebworth averages about 2,880 people per square kilometre, unemployment was about 2% at the 2021 census, and about 2% of households were overcrowded. Knebworth has a station, a high street, two conservation areas, and a park next door, and none of those produce much of a crime report.
By police.uk category, violence and sexual offences made up about 34% of Knebworth's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. That is the largest group almost everywhere, and it covers a broad legal range that includes common assault where nobody was hurt. Anti-social behaviour was about 18% against 16% nationally, shoplifting about 11% against 8%, vehicle crime about 8% against 5%, and criminal damage and arson about 7% against 7%. Burglary was about 6% against 4% nationally. The total is small enough that a few incidents move any of these shares by several points, so the mix shows how one year happened to fall, and should not be read as a pattern. Even so, vehicle crime running above the national share is worth noting in a village where 44% of households run two or more cars.
Hertfordshire Constabulary, the force for the whole county, charged a suspect in about 11% of cases in the year to May 2026, against about 12% nationally. About 40% of its cases closed with no suspect identified, and its charge rate ranks 23rd of 42 forces in England and Wales. Those are county figures and describe how the force handles cases once they are reported, which is a separate question from how much crime Knebworth has. On this measure Hertfordshire is a mid-table force.
Safety is one of Knebworth's real strengths. Crime runs below the district rate, and the most common problems here are ordinary ones.