Safe enough, with one number attached that people will wave at you. Recorded crime here runs above the Cornwall average, though not by a margin that should change where you park. The category mix is close to what the rest of England and Wales records, with one exception worth reading carefully rather than reacting to. Most of what separates this town from the county figure is that it is a town at all. Cornwall is mostly villages, and villages are not what these numbers are built from.
Over the year to May 2026, police.uk recorded 2,023 crimes across the area, which works out at a published rate of about 83 per 1,000 residents. That sits roughly 12% above the Cornwall average. Both figures are published rates rather than anything reconstructed from a headcount, and they use statistical-area populations rather than the resident count on this page, so dividing one by the other at home produces a different answer and a wasted evening.
The comparison is more useful with both numbers in view. The area records about 83 crimes per 1,000 residents. Cornwall as a whole records about 74. That is the whole gap, and a reader who has been told the town is rough should sit with how small it looks written down.
The texture behind it is a densely built town rather than a scattered parish. Population density averages about 3,570 people per square kilometre across the area, which for Cornwall is close to urban. Unemployment runs at about 2% and about 2% of households are overcrowded, both low enough to be unremarkable. None of those figures explains the crime rate, and anyone presenting them as an explanation is telling you about themselves rather than the town.
On the mix, violence and sexual offences account for about 45% of recorded crime here against about 35% across England and Wales. That is the biggest category almost everywhere, it is a broad statutory grouping that includes common assault where nobody is injured, and quoting it on its own is the single most effective way to make an ordinary town sound like a warzone. Anti-social behaviour sits at about 16% locally against about 16% nationally, which is as close to identical as these things get. Criminal damage and arson runs at about 9% against about 7%, and other theft at about 9% against about 7%. Public order is about 6% against about 7%. Shoplifting is about 4% here against about 8% nationally, which is the one figure in the set that points the other way and which nobody ever mentions.
What happens after a report is a separate question, and the answer belongs to the force rather than the town. Devon and Cornwall Police charged a suspect in about 8% of cases over the year to May 2026, against about 12% across forces nationally, which places it 42nd out of 42 forces. About 26% of cases were closed with no suspect identified. That is a statement about investigation and resourcing across two counties, not about this street or the next one, and it should never be folded into the safety question it keeps getting confused with. It does answer the quieter question people actually want answered, which is whether anyone will be caught.
Safety here comes out middling: above the county average by a margin that reads worse in conversation than it does on paper, ordinary in its composition, and nothing like the reputation the town has been carrying around for thirty years.