How We Present Crime Data

Raw crime counts are not adjusted for population

All crime figures are raw reported counts as published by SAPS — they are not divided by population. This means precincts serving larger residential areas will naturally report more crimes than smaller ones. A precinct like Khayelitsha, which covers a very large population, will have high absolute crime counts even if the rate per resident is similar to smaller precincts.

Use raw counts to understand the scale of crime in an area. Use the change vs prior year to understand whether crime is changing. Do not compare raw counts across precincts of different sizes without this context.

Precinct-level data only

SAPS publishes crime statistics at police precinct (station) level — the lowest geographic level available. There is no official suburb-level crime data in South Africa. A single precinct typically covers multiple suburbs, so all suburbs served by the same police station share identical crime statistics.

This means crime data for a quiet residential suburb may include incidents from a neighbouring commercial or high-traffic area within the same precinct. We make this clear on every suburb page.

Trend classification thresholds

Trend labels (vs prior year and baseline) use a ±2% threshold to avoid labelling normal fluctuation as meaningful change:

This threshold applies to both the vs-prior-year comparison and the pre-COVID baseline comparison. Small precincts with low crime counts may show large percentage swings from minor fluctuations — the threshold helps filter out noise.

Raw counts and per-capita rates

SafeSuburb displays raw crime counts as published by SAPS on all precinct pages. Per-capita rates (crimes per 100,000 population) are shown on the Insights page for the 63 City of Cape Town precincts where precinct-level Census 2022 population data is available. For all other precincts across all provinces, only municipal-level population data exists (shared across multiple precincts within the same municipality), which is not precise enough for meaningful per-capita comparisons between different precincts.

Precincts serving larger populations will naturally show higher raw crime counts. A higher count does not necessarily mean an area is more dangerous — it may simply have more people. Trends vs prior year and 5-year baseline comparisons are more reliable indicators, as these compare a precinct against its own history.

Reported crime only

SAPS data reflects crimes reported to police. Crime reporting rates vary significantly by area. Under-reporting is common in many communities, meaning the true crime picture may differ from what the statistics show.

Data coverage

Our data spans 10 complete financial years plus 3 partial years (2013-2014 through 2025-2026), drawn from two SAPS publication types:

Where SAPS has not yet published all quarters for a financial year, totals cover only the available quarters. Comparisons vs prior year annualize both years (scaling totals by 4 / quarters available) to produce comparable full-year estimates. Charts and stat cards clearly label incomplete years.

Population data — two levels of accuracy

Per-capita crime rates require population data. We use two different official Census 2022 sources:

Per-capita rates are not displayed on individual precinct pages because only 63 out of over 1,150 precincts have accurate precinct-level population data. Per-capita analysis is available on the Western Cape Insights page, scoped to the 63 City of Cape Town precincts. Neither source accounts for population changes since 2022, daytime populations, or seasonal shifts in tourist areas. Municipal population figures were sourced from citypopulation.de (aggregating Stats SA Census 2022 data).

Suburb-to-precinct mapping

Our suburb-to-precinct mapping is compiled from community sources — Community Policing Forum websites, municipal GIS portals, and SAPS documentation — and is not derived from the official SAPS station boundary shapefiles. SAPS publishes downloadable catchment-area polygons at saps.gov.za/services/boundary.php (updated January 2026). The gold-standard approach — used by the ISS Crime Hub and documented in SA Crime Quarterly — is to spatially join those polygons against StatsSA Census sub-place data. We plan to migrate to this method. In the meantime, some suburbs near precinct boundaries may be assigned to a slightly different station than the one that actually responds to their street. We welcome corrections — email us at [email protected].

Station renaming: SAPS has recently renamed many police stations across the country (e.g. Grahamstown to Makhanda, Queenstown to Komani, Aliwal North to Maletswai). We map suburbs to the current official SAPS station names as they appear in quarterly crime statistics releases. Some stations have limited suburb coverage in our data — particularly in the Eastern Cape — because the renaming makes it harder to match historical mapping data to current station names.

Coverage: Suburb coverage varies by province. City of Cape Town precincts have the most detailed suburb mappings (5-15 suburbs per precinct). Rural and recently renamed stations may only show the station name itself as a single suburb. In all cases, the underlying crime data for the precinct is complete — only the suburb name mapping may be limited.

Excluded stations

A small number of police stations are excluded from the site because they have no usable crime data or show data anomalies that would be misleading. These exclusions are documented here for transparency.

• Sunrise View (Free State) — listed in SAPS data but has zero crime entries across all quarters
• Koopmansfontein (Northern Cape) — listed in SAPS data but has zero crime entries across all quarters
• Dingleton (Northern Cape) — ghost town demolished for mine expansion; precinct file exists but has no suburb mapping

Additionally, some stations show extreme jumps vs the prior year (>200%) in their first years of data because they were newly established or had boundary changes. These stations are included on the site but their early-year data should be interpreted with caution: Kamhlushwa and Phola (Mpumalanga), Mokopane (Limpopo, renamed from Potgietersrus), Mareetsane (North West), Makhaza and Samora Machel (Western Cape).

URL structure

Suburb pages follow the pattern /province/district/precinct/suburb/. When a police station serves a single main town with the same name, the URL will repeat the name (e.g. /hermanus/hermanus/). The first is the precinct (police station), the second is the suburb. The precinct page at /hermanus/ lists all suburbs served by that station.

Suburbs spanning multiple precincts

SAPS precinct boundaries don't always follow suburb lines. Across all provinces, 88 suburbs are physically split across two or more police precincts. For these suburbs, we show crime data from all relevant precincts on a single page so you can see the full picture without needing to know which precinct covers your street.

Search results show the volume tier from the primary precinct (listed first alphabetically). The suburb page shows both precincts' crime totals, trends, and breakdowns side by side.