Princes Risborough is a safe town, and comfortably so for Buckinghamshire. Its crime rate is about a third below the county average. The mix of offences is close to the national pattern. Unemployment is low and crowded homes are rare. The town's crime reports are as unremarkable as its high street on a weekday afternoon.
Police figures for the year from June 2025 to May 2026 put the town at about 44 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents, roughly 33% below the Buckinghamshire average. That came from 510 recorded crimes across the year, a published total for the neighbourhood areas that make up the town.
For comparison, Buckinghamshire as a whole recorded about 65 crimes per 1,000 residents over the same twelve months. The county average includes the busier centres of High Wycombe and Aylesbury, which pull it up, and the town is well clear of it without anyone having to squint at the numbers.
The town has around 2,600 people per square kilometre on average across its neighbourhoods. About 2% of working-age residents were unemployed at the 2021 Census, and about 2% of households were overcrowded. It is a settled, employed, roomy sort of place, and none of that is the raw material for a crime spree.
Violence and sexual offences are the largest category at about 38% of recorded crime, against about 35% nationally. That heading covers everything from serious assault to common assault without injury, and it tops the list almost everywhere, so a three-point gap from the national share is close to level. Anti-social behaviour is about 14% here against 16% nationally, criminal damage and arson about 8% against 7%, other theft about 8% against 7%, and public order about 7%, level with the national share. Shoplifting is about 7% against 8% nationally, so for a market town with a working high street, the shops get off fairly lightly. The police.uk street map shows recorded crime close to a specific address month by month, which is more use for one street than any town-wide mix.
What happens after a report is a separate question, and it is answered by Thames Valley Police, not by the town. The force charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which places it 37th of 42 forces. In about 37% of cases the investigation closed with no suspect identified. That is a measure of the force across its whole area, and it says nothing about how often anything happens in Princes Risborough. The town's own record is low crime, and the force's record is slow charging, and a buyer gets both.
Safety is the town's best argument. Low crime here is the norm on every measure the town itself controls.