Vehicle crime in Sunderland: the streets to know about
Police recorded 260 vehicle crimes within a mile of Sunderland town centre in the last 12 months — theft of vehicles, theft from vehicles and vehicle interference.
The short answer
Sunderland ranks #48 of 111 UK town centres we track for vehicle crime, with 260 offences in 12 months — roughly steady. Parking here isn’t reckless, but it rewards care: most offences cluster on a handful of streets (named below), and most are opportunist — visible deterrents end them.
260
Vehicle crimes, September 2025 – August 2026
-1.4%
Last 3 months vs the same 3 months a year earlier
22
Average per month
Rate per 1,000 residents · year ending June 2026
Vehicle crime across the Northumbria force area
4.41
per 1,000 people, Northumbria
5.04
England and Wales
6,671
offences recorded, 12 months
Vehicle crime in the Northumbria force area runs at about 1.1 times below the national rate. Sunderland is one of the local authority areas inside it.
This is a different measure from the count above. The 260 figure counts crimes within a mile of Sunderland town centre, from police street-level records. The rate here covers the whole Northumbria force area, from police recorded crime as published by ONS. Different geography and a different collection basis, so the two totals are not comparable with each other.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables, year ending June 2026. Police recorded crime collected by the Home Office. How we use it. Published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The last 12 months
Where it clusters in Sunderland
| # | Street (on or near) | Vehicle crimes (15 months) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Low Street | 9 |
| 2 | Borough Road | 9 |
| 3 | Bridge Crescent | 8 |
| 4 | Foyle Street | 8 |
| 5 | Derwent Street | 6 |
| 6 | Tel-el-kebir Road | 5 |
| 7 | Wearmouth Street | 5 |
| 8 | Press Lane | 5 |
| 9 | Azalea Terrace North | 4 |
| 10 | Park Lane | 4 |
What to do with this: if you regularly park on or near the streets above, that’s where the defences below earn their keep — most of these offences are opportunist, and the easiest car on the street is the one taken. Check your insurance excess too: it’s often more than the cost of every deterrent combined.
Figures are street-level police records within one mile of Sunderland town centre — police anonymise locations to the nearest mapped street point, so counts are indicative of the immediate area rather than exact addresses. Compare Sunderland with other towns on the UK vehicle crime league table, or check the roads themselves on the Sunderland accident hotspot map.
How Sunderland compares nationally
Sunderland is the highway authority for these roads, which means the same body counted in the national comparison below is the one that maintains them.
Per mile driven
117 of 192
Per resident
144 of 188
Risk band
Below average
Five-year trend
up 2.2%
Those two numbers disagree, and that is the story. Sunderland sits 144 of 188 measured per resident but 117 of 192 measured per mile actually driven — a gap of 27 places. Almost every published comparison quietly uses the per-head measure, which flatters places that carry a lot of through-traffic. On the measure that accounts for how much driving actually happens here, the record is worse than the usual figure suggests.
The full record for Sunderland — severity-adjusted casualties, the breakdown of who is being hurt, the darkness and ice profile, and a comparison against its ONS statistical neighbours rather than the national average — is on its own page.
Sunderland’s full road risk record →What actually changes the odds in Sunderland
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Sunderland’s own figures above, each with the number that prompted it. Every guide explains how the thing works before it suggests buying anything, and most cost less than a third of a typical insurance excess.
Faraday key pouch / box
£9–£25
Even at Sunderland's 94 vehicle crimes per 100,000 residents, relay theft is the method that needs no tools and leaves no damage. The pouch is the cheapest thing that stops it.
How it works →
Steering wheel lock
£40–£70
Vehicle theft is target selection: thieves work a street and take the easiest car. A visible attack-rated bar moves your car down that list before anyone touches it.
How it works →
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