A plain-English read of the latest Sevenoaks crime figures from police.uk open data: the main categories, the trend over six months, and how to check your own street.

Every month, Kent Police publishes a record of where crime happened across the district, and anyone can read it. The figures sit on police.uk, the official open-data site, and they cover your street as well as the High Street. Most people never look. This is a plain read of the latest numbers for the Sevenoaks town area, what the main categories are, which way the trend is pointing, and how you can check your own road in about two minutes.

The most recent month of data available is April 2026, confirmed against the police.uk data dates feed. The data always runs about two months behind, because forces upload their records, then the figures are quality-checked and anonymised before release, so the April set is the freshest picture we have.

The headline: April 2026

For the central Sevenoaks town area, the police recorded 168 crimes in April 2026. That is drawn straight from the police.uk street-level data for the streets around the town centre. For context, the six months from November 2025 to April 2026 averaged about 158 crimes a month across the same area, so April sits a little above the recent average but well inside the normal monthly range.

Here is how April 2026 broke down by category, largest first:

Crime category Recorded crimes Share
Violence and sexual offences 53 31.5%
Anti-social behaviour 26 15.5%
Shoplifting 25 14.9%
Criminal damage and arson 19 11.3%
Other theft 16 9.5%
Vehicle crime 7 4.2%
Drugs 6 3.6%
Public order 5 3.0%
Burglary 4 2.4%
Theft from the person 4 2.4%
Other crime 2 1.2%
Possession of weapons 1 0.6%

Source: police.uk open data, Sevenoaks Town and St John’s area, April 2026.

Three categories do most of the work. Violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour, and shoplifting together account for nearly two thirds of everything recorded. That pattern is typical for a Kent market town with a busy retail centre, and it matters when you read the rest of the numbers.

A word on “violence and sexual offences”

This is the single biggest category, and it is also the most misread. The police.uk system folds dozens of detailed offence codes into 14 broad headings, so “violence and sexual offences” covers everything from a pushing incident or a public threat through to far more serious harm. A high count in this category does not mean the town is full of serious violent crime. It means a wide group of offences all land under one label. The police.uk methodology explains how those categories are built.

The trend: six months at a glance

One month on its own tells you very little. The trend is where the signal is. Here is the central Sevenoaks town area, month by month:

Month Recorded crimes
November 2025 157
December 2025 173
January 2026 139
February 2026 139
March 2026 174
April 2026 168

Source: police.uk open data, Sevenoaks Town and St John’s area.

The line is roughly flat with normal wobble. The quietest month was January, the busiest was March, and the gap between them is modest. There is no surge and no collapse here, just the ordinary monthly noise you get when the underlying numbers are this small. That is the honest read, and it is more useful than any scary or reassuring single figure.

How Sevenoaks compares

Set against the wider county and country, Sevenoaks district sits on the low side. Independent analyses of the same police data put the Sevenoaks district crime rate at roughly 45 crimes per 1,000 people, around 37% below the wider Kent rate of about 71 per 1,000 and well under the England, Wales and Northern Ireland figure, according to CrimeRate. On the largest category, violence and sexual offences, the district rate works out at around 14 per 1,000. The takeaway is consistent: this is a lower-crime district than most, which is worth keeping in mind before any one month’s table reads as alarming.

What it means for you

A few practical points fall out of the numbers.

  • Retail crime drives the town-centre total. Shoplifting and “other theft” are a large slice of what gets recorded, and most of it clusters around the shops and car parks, not residential roads. If you live on a quieter street, the town-centre total is not your street’s experience.
  • Anti-social behaviour is a report, not always a crime. This category captures things people call in, from rowdiness to nuisance. A higher count often reflects people reporting more, which is a sign the reporting system is being used, not always that things are worse.
  • Property crime against homes is a small share. Burglary was 4 recorded crimes in April, and vehicle crime 7. Low numbers, though both are worth ordinary precautions.
  • Outcomes lag the report. When you read the map, many recent crimes still show as “under investigation” simply because the case has not concluded yet. In the April data, the largest single outcome status was exactly that. It does not mean nothing was done.

How to read your own street on police.uk

The best thing about this data is that you can check your own road, not just the town total. Here is how.

  1. Go to police.uk and choose “Find your neighbourhood” or the crime map.
  2. Type your postcode or street name. The Sevenoaks town centre falls in the Sevenoaks Town and St John’s neighbourhood policing area, confirmed against the police.uk neighbourhood locator.
  3. Pick a month from the date selector, then read the coloured pins on the map. Each pin is a crime, grouped by type, and you can click through to the category and the recorded outcome.

One thing to understand before you panic at a pin outside your house. The locations are approximate, not exact. As the police.uk guidance puts it, the published point “always represents the approximate location of a crime, not the exact place that it happened.” Each crime is snapped to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, and every point covers a catchment of at least eight addresses, so no single home can be identified. That is why so many entries read as “On or near” a road, a parking area, a supermarket, or a hospital rather than a house number. The snap point near you may be a few doors along, or on the next street.

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest Sevenoaks crime data available?

April 2026 is the most recent month published, confirmed on the police.uk data feed. The figures run about two months behind because every force’s data is quality-checked and anonymised before it goes live.

What are the most common crimes in Sevenoaks?

For the town area in April 2026, the top three were violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour, and shoplifting, which together made up close to two thirds of all recorded crime, per police.uk open data.

Is the Sevenoaks crime rate going up or down?

Across the six months to April 2026 the monthly total was broadly flat, moving between 139 and 174 recorded crimes with no clear upward or downward run. Independent reads of the same data put the district below the England and Wales average overall, per CrimeRate.

How do I check crime on my own street in Sevenoaks?

Enter your postcode on the police.uk crime map, pick a month, and read the pins. Remember the points are approximate and grouped to protect privacy, so “On or near” a road is as precise as the public data gets.

Why does “violence and sexual offences” look so high?

It is one broad category covering many different offence types, from minor public-order incidents to serious harm, grouped under a single label. A large count reflects the breadth of the category, not a town full of serious violent crime. See the police.uk methodology.

Sources

Figures last checked against police.uk on 6 June 2026. Crime data is published monthly and may be revised. We do not name individuals, and the locations on police.uk are approximate by design.

Image: “Kent Police Peugeot 308 (GN73 BVO) - The Paddock, Chatham Waterfront, Medway” by Sunolafjagtenben-hur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kent_Police_Peugeot_308_(GN73_BVO)_-_The_Paddock,_Chatham_Waterfront,_Medway.jpg).