Shepherd's Bush runs hotter on crime than the borough around it. About 167 recorded crimes for every 1,000 residents a year. The rest of Hammersmith and Fulham runs at about 145. Violence makes up a smaller share than it does nationally, and nuisance and shoplifting a bigger one. Busy and light-fingered, more than menacing.
Police.uk records put the rate at about 167 crimes per 1,000 residents in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, roughly 16% above the Hammersmith and Fulham average. That is 10,384 recorded crimes across the area over the same twelve months, a published total on a published rate.
Set the two side by side and the gap is plain. The borough as a whole recorded about 145 crimes per 1,000 residents over that year, against the area's 167. Hammersmith and Fulham is the comparison here, so the gap is measured against a busy inner-London borough and says nothing about how Shepherd's Bush compares with the country.
The neighbourhood producing those numbers is crowded. The 2021 Census puts average density at about 17,400 people per square kilometre, unemployment at about 5% and overcrowding at about 12% of households. That describes what the streets are like to live on, tight, full and close to a lot of other people, and it sets the scene for the figures without explaining them.
The mix is where the headline gets less alarming. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal category that includes common assault without injury, make up about 24% of recorded crime here against about 35% nationally. Anti-social behaviour runs at about 22% against 16% nationally, and shoplifting about 14% against 8%. Other theft (8% against 7%), public order offences (6% against 7%) and vehicle crime (6% against 5%) all land close to the national shares. Westfield sits on the north side of the Green with a bus interchange at either end, so the shoplifting share is the least surprising number in the whole set. To see what a particular street is like, the police.uk crime map shows recorded incidents by location month by month, which is a better guide than any area average when choosing between two flats a few roads apart.
What happens after a report is a separate question. The Metropolitan Police Service charges a suspect in about 10% of cases across London, against about 12% nationally, and closes about 53% of cases with no suspect identified, over the year from June 2025 to May 2026. That puts it 33rd of 42 forces on charging. These are force-wide figures, so they describe how the Metropolitan Police handles crime across London and tell you nothing about how often anything happens in Shepherd's Bush.
Safety is a weak spot here, with crime running above an already busy borough and the force behind it charging below the national rate. Most of the excess is shoplifting and nuisance, and buyers should still weigh it.