Which east London borough had the most crime in May 2025?

East London as a whole saw an increase in criminal offences in May compared to April with a rise from 13,494 reports to 14,092 reports, according to the figures.

Only one of the six boroughs saw a drop in its crime count from the previous month.

As was the case for each month this year, Newham led the way with the highest amount of reported crime in May at 3,428 offences.

This was a 7.3 per cent increase from April. 

Theft, violence against the person and vehicle offences were the most recurring crime types last month with 1,195 reports, 860 reports and 348 reports respectively.

Whilst theft, vehicle offences and drug offences were down in their tally from April, violence against the person, sexual offences and burglary each saw increases.

As was the case in April, Tower Hamlets was the east London borough with the second highest crime count in May - with 3,074 offences.

Theft and violence against the person were again the most frequent with 960 and 913 respective reports whilst drug offences were the third most common with 232.

Each of these were up from the previous month: theft by 8.1pc, violence against the person by 7.4pc and 6.9pc.

With 2,116 registered offences, Waltham Forest had the third highest crime count in May.

This was topped again by theft (623) and violence against the person (519).

Whilst theft offences had risen in the borough by 10.7pc from April, violence against the person had dropped by 4.8pc.

Burglary, robbery, sexual offences and arson and criminal damage were other crime types that rose from the previous month in Waltham Forest.

Redbridge accumulated 2,097 criminal offence reports in May which was up from 1,990 in April.

Violence against the person was the most common crime type here in May with 730 offences whilst theft with 502 and vehicle offences with 262 followed.

Drug offences saw a notable increase from the previous month with 19.6pc more drug related crimes being reported in May.

Violence against the person crimes also rose by 10.8pc and so did burglary by 10.9pc and possession of weapons by 20pc from 10 in April to 12 May.

Barking and Dagenham registered 1,704 reported crimes last month and was the only borough to see a decline in reports from April.

Down from 1,764, this was a 3.4pc drop.

The top three recurring crime categories however remained identical with violence against the person, theft and drug offences leading the way.

Each of these saw decreases from April: violence against the person was down by 6.8pc, theft was down by 5.7pc and drug crimes were down by a substantial 18.75pc.

Despite a 5.5pc rise in monthly crime count, Havering remained the east London borough with the lowest number of reported crime.

Havering has registered the lowest crime count in the east side of the capital each month so far this year.

With a total of 1,673 reports, violence against the person, theft and vehicle offences were the three most common with 501, 413 and 191 respectively.

Theft and violence against the person were both up from April alongside other categories like sexual offences, burglary and public order offences.

Vehicle offences, robbery and possession of weapons were each down from the previous month.