Police recorded 140 violence and sexual offences around central Kendal in July, a three-year high. Other crime was normal; Penrith and Barrow were flat.
Police recorded 140 violence and sexual offences within a mile of central Kendal in July 2026. That is the highest monthly figure in the three years of street-level data that police.uk holds for the town.
The next highest month since August 2023 was 109, in May 2024. Over the twelve months to June 2026, the average was 75 a month. July was nearly double that.
The figures come from Cumbria Constabulary’s July release on police.uk, published this month. We pulled every month back to August 2023, the earliest the service still holds, and counted them ourselves.
Everything else was normal
The rise is almost entirely in one category. Take violence and sexual offences out, and July looks like an ordinary month.
| Crimes within a mile of central Kendal | July 2025 | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Violence and sexual offences | 78 | 140 |
| All other crime and antisocial behaviour | 99 | 84 |
| Total | 177 | 224 |
The twelve-month average for everything other than violence was 88 a month, so July’s 84 was slightly below it. Some categories were low for the time of year:
- Shoplifting: 7, against 19 in October 2025 and 21 in April 2026
- Antisocial behaviour: 9, against 26 in November 2025
- Public order offences: 17, close to their usual level
- Criminal damage and arson: 16, also close to usual
The total of 224 was not a record. May 2024 had 227. But in May 2024, violence made up 109 of them. In July 2026 it made up 140, nearly two crimes in every three.
It was not a Cumbria-wide jump
We ran the same one-mile count for other Cumbrian towns, to see whether the whole force had recorded more violence in July. It had not.
| Violence and sexual offences, one mile of the centre | July 2025 | June 2026 | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kendal | 78 | 80 | 140 |
| Penrith | 72 | 66 | 68 |
| Barrow-in-Furness | 174 | 162 | 169 |
| Windermere | 14 | 14 | 16 |
Penrith, Barrow and Windermere were all flat. That rules out a force-wide change in how crimes were recorded that month, at least as an explanation for Kendal’s figure on its own.
Where the reports were mapped
The July reports were spread across 71 different map points, against 55 in June. So this was not one address generating dozens of records.
A few points did carry more than usual. The ones with the most violence and sexual offences in July were:
- On or near Police Station: 11
- On or near Park Side Road: 10
- On or near Rosemede Avenue: 7
- On or near Gillinggate: 6
- On or near Kirkland and Old Shambles: 5 each
Treat these with care. Police.uk does not publish exact addresses. It moves each crime to the nearest point on a fixed list of anonymous map points, as its own documentation explains. “On or near Police Station” is one of those points, and it can cover offences reported at the station or happening nearby, not necessarily at the building.
What the data cannot tell you
Police.uk records offences, not incidents. One incident can produce several crime records, for example where there is more than one victim or more than one offence. The data does not show whether that happened in July, so we cannot say how many separate incidents lie behind the 140.
The category is broad. “Violence and sexual offences” covers everything from common assault and harassment to serious violence and sexual crime. Police.uk does not split it further at street level. Domestic abuse is recorded in it too, and many of those offences happen in homes rather than in public.
Most of the July cases are still open. Of the 140, police.uk lists 88 as “under investigation”, 40 as “unable to prosecute suspect”, 5 as “awaiting court outcome” and 5 as “investigation complete; no suspect identified”. Those statuses change as cases move on.
The base is small. July was 60 offences up on June. That is a big percentage jump, but from a small number. One month on its own is not a trend. August’s figures, due next month, will show whether July was a spike or the start of something.
Cumbria Constabulary has not published a statement about July’s figures. Its news pages could not be read by our tools today, so we have not been able to check whether it has commented anywhere else.
What it means for you
- The rest of the picture is steady. Burglary (3) and shoplifting (7) were at or below their usual level in July. Vehicle crime (5) was a little above its average of 3.
- If you are affected by violence or abuse, call 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise. You can also report online to Cumbria Police.
- Anyone can check their own street. Police.uk’s crime map shows the same data by neighbourhood, month by month.
- We will update this when the August release lands, and if the force explains the July figure.
For other Kendal information, see our pages on parking in Kendal, council tax bands and bin collection days.
How we counted: all figures are from the police.uk street-level crime API, using its one-mile radius around 54.328, -2.745, the centre of Kendal, for each month from August 2023 to July 2026. The same method, with each town’s own centre, was used for Penrith, Barrow and Windermere. Data is published under the Open Government Licence.
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