Windsor is reasonably safe, but it has more crime than anywhere else in a low-crime borough. Crime runs about a third above the borough average. Theft makes up more of it than the national pattern would suggest. Violence makes up a little less. The town's problems are mostly shoplifting and theft from parked cars, measured against neighbours that set a very low bar.
Thames Valley Police recorded 3,440 crimes in Windsor in the year to May 2026, and the published rate is about 93 crimes per 1,000 residents. That is roughly 35% above the average for Windsor and Maidenhead.
Across the borough as a whole, the rate is about 69 per 1,000. Windsor's 93 is high for this borough, though the borough itself has low crime.
Windsor is fairly built up, at about 5,300 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 3% and about 4% of households are overcrowded. Those figures describe a busy town with a strong local economy and very little hardship. They don't explain the crime rate. Windsor was garrisoned by Colonel Venn during the English Civil War, and from 1645 it was home to the New Model Army. The town has had calmer lodgers since.
By category, violence and sexual offences make up about 32% of Windsor's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category is the largest almost everywhere and includes common assault without injury. Anti-social behaviour is about 12% here, against about 16% nationally. The categories that run above the national share are theft-related: shoplifting about 9% against 8%, other theft about 9% against 7%, public order about 8% against 7%, and vehicle crime about 7% against 5%. None of the gaps is large. Taken together, they point to a town where things go missing from shops and parked cars more often than people get hurt.
Getting a case to court is a separate question from how safe the town is. Thames Valley Police charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which ranks it 37th of 42 forces. About 37% of its cases are closed with no suspect identified. These are force-wide figures for the 12 months to May 2026, covering the whole Thames Valley, not Windsor alone. In practice, if your bike or car is stolen, you are more likely to be claiming on insurance than seeing anyone charged.
Safety is one of Windsor's weaker points. Before buying, look at the crime map for the streets around the specific house, because the town as a whole doesn't match the quiet villages around it.