Which east London borough had the most crime in January 2026?

Crime across east London as a whole dropped to 13,030 in January 2026 from 13,722 in December 2025.

Of the six east London boroughs, five saw lower totals in January 2026 compared to December 2025 whilst one saw a slight increase.

Continuing the trend that was established across the preceding year, Newham registered the highest amount of reported crime in the first month of 2026 with a total of 3,370.

This was down 1.57 per cent from the total of 3,424 registered in December 2025.

As was the case for the majority of 2025, theft was the most recurring type of crime in Newham and 981 reports were made in January according to the Met's data.

Violence against the person was the next most common crime type with 911 reports made, followed by vehicle offences with 357 reports.

These were the same top three contributors as in December 2025 but only violence against the person saw a higher count in January than in December (885).

Tower Hamlets saw the next highest crime count in January with 2,687 reports made.

This was down substantially by 12.58pc from the previous month.

Theft, violence against the person and vehicle offences were the most common at the start of 2026 in Tower Hamlets with 779, 771 and 212 respective reports made.

Vehicle offences was the only one of these categories to see a higher total in January than in December.

Redbridge was next in the ranking and saw a 4.02pc drop in reported crime from 2,089 in December to 2,005 in January.

Violence against the person was the top contributor in Redbridge in January with 662 reports made, followed by 455 reports of theft and 245 reports of vehicle offences.

As was the case in Tower Hamlets, vehicle offences was the only one of these crime types to see a higher total in January than December (220).

The borough with the fourth highest crime count in January was Waltham Forest with a total of 1,912 reports - up from 1,888 reports in December.

Waltham Forest was the only borough to see an increase in reported crime across the two months.

Violence against the person (531 cases), theft (530 cases), and vehicle offences (180 cases) formed the top three most regular crime types.

Violence against the person was up from 502 reports whilst theft was up from 521 reports and vehicle offences were down from 191.

Other crime types that increased from December 2025 included sexual offences (up by 18pc), burglary (up by 1.66pc) and arson and criminal damage (up by 3.33pc).

Barking and Dagenham and Havering were separated by a single report in December 2025 according to the data but the gap extended in January with Barking and Dagenham registering 1,561 reports and Havering seeing 1,495 reports.

The total was down by 3.82pc from the previous month in Barking and Dagenham whilst Havering saw a larger drop of 7.94pc.

Violence against the person was the most commonly reported crime in Barking and Dagenham with 570 reports made, followed by theft with 258 reports and vehicle offences with 171 reports.

The total of reported vehicle offences was up from 164 in December whilst the other two categories saw decreases.

The same three crime types were the top contributors in Havering as well.

A total of 475 reports were made of violence against the person whilst 294 were made of theft and 220 of vehicle offences.

The latter two both saw increases in January with theft rising by 6.52pc and vehicle offences rising by 34.14pc.

Reports of weapon possession were also up from 10 in December to 17 in January in Havering.