Crime in Sandwell: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (16,098), shoplifting (3,428) and vehicle crime (3,203) made up 62% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 91st of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the upper half.

Recorded crime in Sandwell peaked in the year to August 2022 (43,802 crimes) and was lowest in the year to August 2018 (33,130). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it rose 10%, while across England and Wales it fell 4%.

Month by month

Compared with England and Wales, Sandwell recorded notably more possession of weapons (2.4 times the national rate), vehicle crime (82% above the national rate) and violence and sexual offences (33% above the national rate), and notably less anti-social behaviour (77% below) and theft from the person (63% below). On the year before, drugs rose from 1,069 to 1,328, while anti-social behaviour fell from 2,865 to 1,263 and robbery fell from 849 to 627.

What each category covers: crime categories.

33,927 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in Sandwell in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 95.9 per 1,000 residents, higher than the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was almost unchanged on the year ending March 2025 (33,775), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, Sandwell had the 61st highest rate (the street-level ranking above is among the 302 districts with street-level pages on this site, over the 12 months to August 2026).

Of the crimes recorded in the West Midlands Police area in the year ending March 2026, 1.2% were not assigned to a district. Those crimes are counted in the force and England and Wales totals but in no district, so the figure for Sandwell is a slight undercount.

Offences recorded in Sandwell, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was violence without injury, with 6,593 offences (19% of the total). Relative to England and Wales, rates were highest for possession of weapons (2.2 times the national rate), vehicle offences (1.8 times the national rate) and robbery of personal property (1.5 times the national rate). Rates were lowest relative to the national rate for theft from the person (0.29 times), bicycle theft (0.39 times) and trafficking of drugs (0.42 times).

The largest rises on the year were in possession of drugs (+57%) and possession of weapons (+18%). The largest falls were in robbery of personal property (−32%) and non-residential burglary (−31%). Robbery of business property and shoplifting are not compared with the year ending March 2025: from April 2025 the Home Office Counting Rules were clarified so that a theft from a shop in which violence is used or threatened against staff or anyone else is recorded as robbery of business property rather than shoplifting (ONS).

Recorded crime in Sandwell since the year ending March 2022

The chart shows police recorded crime per 1,000 residents in each year ending March from 2022 to 2026. Sandwell's rate was above the England and Wales rate in every one of those 5 years. The series starts in the year ending March 2022 because the share of crimes in the West Midlands Police area not assigned to a district moved from 0.0% in the year ending March 2021 to 3.6% in the year ending March 2022, which changes district totals without any change in crime.

Changes in how forces record crime move these figures as well as changes in crime (methodology).

Districts in the West Midlands Police area, the year ending March 2026

Of the 7 districts in the West Midlands Police area with a figure for the year ending March 2026, Sandwell had the 2nd highest rate.

Source: Home Office police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables (released 23 July 2026), gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Financial years, excluding fraud; how they differ from the street-level figures: methodology.

2 of the 8 nearest districts have a higher crime rate than Sandwell; the highest is Birmingham district (123.9 per 1,000) and the lowest South Staffordshire (59.5).

Of the 32 areas within Sandwell, West Bromwich Central had the highest crime rate (203.3 per 1,000) and Great Barr with Yew Tree the lowest (64.7), 3 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 17% of the crime recorded in Sandwell over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Supermarket” (1,229).

Of the 35,107 crimes in Sandwell with a recorded outcome, 33% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 6.7% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 1,263 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

Sandwell has an estimated population of 353,860 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has more residents with no qualifications (29%, against 18%), more social housing (27%, against 17%) and fewer residents with Level 4 qualifications or above (23%, against 34%). On the England IoD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up Sandwell average decile 3.0 (1 = most deprived), more deprived than average.

Police-recorded crime from data.police.uk (September 2017 to August 2026), ONS population estimates and Census 2021. Definitions and limitations: methodology.