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

East London as a whole saw a slight decrease in reported crime from 13,899 instances in November to 13,726 reports in December.

Of the six boroughs in the east of the capital, four registered lower crime counts in December than in November whilst two saw their totals rise fractionally.

Following the pattern established through the majority of 2025, Newham had the highest total of reported crime with 3,431 incidents in December.

This was down by 0.63 per cent from November.

Theft was the most common crime type in Newham in December with 1,095 reports made followed by violence against the person with 883 reports made and vehicle offences which was reported 421 times.

Each of these saw a lower total of reports than in November.

However, drug offences, arson and criminal damage and weapon possession all saw an increase in reports.

Tower Hamlets was again the borough with the second highest crime count with 3,048 instances in December.

This was down by 2.03pc from the previous month.

Theft was the most reported crime type in December with 943 reports.

There was a big gap between the second and third most reported crimes with violence against the person registering 856 reports and drug offences seeing 243 reports.

Of these three, only violence against the person saw a lower count than in November.

Next in the December ranking was Redbridge which registered 2,078 reports of crime, up by 2.41pc from November.

Again, violence against the person was the most recurring crime type although December’s total of 688 reports was down from November’s 707.

Theft on the other hand was up to 529 in December from 484 in the preceding month.

Vehicle offences were down by 9.46pc to 220 reports in December whilst other crime types such as drug offences and sexual offences rose.

Waltham Forest saw a total of 1,896 incidents reported in the last month of 2025 – a 0.35pc drop from November.

The leading contributors to this total were theft with 519 reports, violence against the person with 508 reports and vehicle offences with 109 reports.

Whilst the total number of reported thefts stayed the same in November and December, the number of reported vehicle offences and violence against the person both dropped.

Barking and Dagenham and Havering recorded similar totals in December with only seven reports separating the two boroughs.

Barking and Dagenham saw 1,622 reports – down by 6.67pc from 1,738 reports in November.

Violence against the person was reported 589 times whilst theft was reported 277 times and 117 cases of drug offences were raised.

Only drug offences saw a higher total in December than November in these three top contributors.

Rounding off the same order of boroughs as in November, Havering saw 1,615 reports of crime made in December – up from 1,552 reports in the preceding month.

A total of 527 reports were made of violence against the person which was seven reports fewer than in November.

Theft was reported 357 times which was an increase of 52 cases from November and vehicle offences were reported 172 times which was a decrease of 13 cases from November.