Crime and Safety

Although Milton Keynes did not experience far-right riots, misinformation and disinformation created heightened community anxiety.

In our survey, crime emerged as the issue people most want to see addressed.

• 54% of people selected levels of crime as a top priority for improvements in the city. [1]
  
  
• 45% of people are concerned about levels of crime getting worse in the city over the last 2-3 years, and only 22% feel levels of crime are getting better. [2]

Women expressed deeper concern: 52% believe crime is getting worse, compared with 34% of men. [3]

Concerns about domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG) are still prevalent, with SAASSBMK explaining that this is a crime that is growing each year. Support, collaboration and more funding is needed to continue supporting those who are affected.

For MK Together, domestic abuse has been top of the agenda. In 2024/25, it commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment, which has  informed the draft Domestic Abuse Strategy for 2025–28.

These feelings are reflected in some of the police data. In April 2023 — March 2024, there were 26,971 offences reported across all crime types — a 3.1% increase from last year. [4]

• 17.8% increase in sexual offences since April 2023 — March 2024
  
  
• 8% increase in hate crime and incidents since April 2023 — March 2024 in MK, compared with 6% increase in race hate crimes and 3% increase in religious hate crimes since April — March 2025 nationally
  
  
• 4.9% increase in domestic abuse crime and incidents since April 2023 — March 2024
  
  
• 26.9% increase in shoplifting since April 2023 — March 2024

It is worth noting that whilst these increases are distressing, it is impossible to separate an increase in the number of incidents from possible higher reporting levels, supported by stronger community engagement or increased confidence in the police.

Police-led community initiatives this year have included: [5]

• Partnerships with MK Together
  
  
• Sessions with the Hong Kong community
  
  
• Working with the MK Muslim Forum to ease tensions following recent unrest
  
  
• A targeted operation to prevent sexual violence in the night-time economy, with a perpetrator-focused approach
  
  
• A Safer Streets partnership creating a “safe corridor” between the city centre and MK Station on key evenings

Supporting youth offenders and tackling knife crime remain high priorities for the police and council.

• 18.3% decrease in knife-enabled crime (Year on year, Nov 23/Oct 24 vs Nov 24/Oct 25)
  
  
• 13% increase in youth-related crime [6] over the same period

Kurshida Mirza BEM, then High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, took a collaborative approach to tackling youth crime, explaining:

“We know, and research shows, that young people excluded from school are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. [7] Rates of school exclusion in Buckinghamshire are lower than the national average, but increasing at a faster rate”. [8]

In February 2025, Mirza convened a symposium on School Inclusion and Crime Prevention. The symposium brought together a range of organisations from education, law enforcement, and local government to shape practical responses.

The next steps will be to launch a three-year programme plan for representation, early help, shared learning, and a united voice, with services shaped with and by young people.

Vital Thinking

Tackling crime in the long term means engaging with the wider social conditions that shape it.

How might this approach help the city confront other sensitive, emotionally charged and high-impact challenges, such as domestic abuse and hate crime?

SAASSBMK

Sexual Assault and Abuse Support Service Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes (SAASSBMK) supports survivors of sexual abuse across Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, with most of its referrals (67%) coming from Milton Keynes.

SASSBMK offers counselling, independent sexual and domestic violence advisors, and advocacy to survivors aged 16+. From 2026, the team will launch a service for children aged 5+, thanks to new funding from Children in Need. The group has 70 counsellors in total, and a 6-9-month waiting list, which is considered a very short wait compared to most services in the country.

In the last year, it has seen an increase in referrals, consistent with the trend of recent years, though this may be due to greater awareness of its services. Alongside an increase in complex cases, it has supported more male survivors, seen a rise in sibling abuse cases, and added a specialist neurodivergent counsellor to the team.

In the last 18 months, it has partnered with C2C, the women’s support centre, to run Thrive Together, a drop-in peer support group with an arts-andcrafts focus, open to survivors from multiple organisations, including Women’s Aid and MK Act.

A group of women who met in this space have now formed a new lived experience strategic group; an empowering way to use their skills and experience for campaigning and fundraising for support and change.