Tollesbury is a safe place to live. Its crime rate is about half the district's. Unemployment is low. Hardly anyone lives in an overcrowded home. If you are leaving Maldon for somewhere calmer, crime is one thing you can tick off.
In the year to May 2026, Essex Police recorded 95 crimes in Tollesbury, a published rate of about 26 per 1,000 residents and roughly 50% below the Maldon district average. In a village this size, one bad month or one prolific offender can move the figure noticeably, so a single year tells you less than it seems to. If you want detail for a particular road, look it up on the police's street-level crime map for the last few months. The twelve-month total stays the better guide.
Across Maldon district as a whole, the published rate for the same year is about 52 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Tollesbury's 26. Most of the district's recorded crime happens up the Blackwater, away from the mouth of the estuary.
Averaged across its neighbourhood areas, Tollesbury has about 1,500 people per square kilometre. Unemployment is about 2%, and about 2% of households live in overcrowded homes. That describes a small, settled village of owner-occupied houses where most people are in work. None of these figures causes the low crime rate, but they describe the kind of place that tends to have one.
If a crime is reported, Essex Police charges a suspect in about 11% of cases, against about 12% nationally, and comes 28th of 42 forces on that measure. About 37% of its cases close with nobody identified as a suspect. These are figures for the whole Essex force. They describe how Essex Police handles reports, not how often crime happens in Tollesbury, and they should not be mixed up with the village's crime rate. Crime is rare here, and if something does happen, the chances of a charge are about the same as anywhere else in the county.
Safety is one of Tollesbury's real strengths. Crime is rare here, and for most residents the night-time disturbance is the sound of the tide.