Safety in Romania

I'd have to say that it's pretty safe in Romania, the biggest physical threat to anyone is probably the stray dogs in the street.  Sure there are a good share of Roma, drunks, mentally unstable people on the streets, kids huffing paint, but I think they'll usually not pose a problem unless provoked.  At night, following common sense (not flashing money around, minding your business and not being boisterous (especially if your not speaking Romanian), you should have no trouble anywhere.

It's far more likely for an expat to be scammed by an unscrupulous taxi driver, business owner, real estate agent, etc. Generally, encounters involving money transactions, care needs to be taken because many Romanians assume a foreigner has more money, and they look for ways to take advantage.

Some of my experiences, likely as a result of me speaking English or poor Romanian....
I've had a taxi driver try to charge me 20 RON for a 3 km drive from the the airport.
I've had a driver that was transporting wood from a deposit, 1 km away to my house, ask for 150 RON
I've encountered a lady at the open market try to charge 12 RON/KG for tomato's....when they were 6 RON at other stands.
I've had a car dealership service tell me I needed a new instrument cluster costing 1000 Euros, another independent service made the repair (which was only a sensor) for 80 RON.

Fortunately, in these cases I was wise enough to realize what was going on...but there have been other times where I've been taken if it was for a service or product I wasn't so familiar with, or I didn't have my wife or a friend with me that spoke Romanian fluently to intervene for me

Romania is just like anywhere else i have lived. When people used to learn I was from New York City, they would always ask me about crime. when i was in 6h grade we roamed all over the city and never ever had any problem. we just knew where not to go, most common sense. I've been here in Romania for 2 years. I have no fear to go anywhere except for 2 things: feral dogs (one bit my leg) and drunks (one got mad at me when he pan handled and i said 'nu sunt roman', I'm not a romanian). But drunks are the same everywhere. Basically it's just the dogs, even locals steer a wide berth. I find the cities safe. You're truly more likely to get mugged in the USA or shot being too close to a school. Villages are even safer. No fear. relax, come here and enjoy

Hello  i think the safety situation in romania is good.I have been here since march 2015 and have found no problems here walking the streets of brasov. day or night. safer than toronto canada for sure.everywhere you look there is someone walking around you.Im not sure what would happen if you were attacked or mugged would a romanian citizen come to your aid?.I know in toronto canada you would have a group of persons come running to your aid straight away. one bit  worries me a bit is the loose large dogs that are running around hungry scared.I walk my 2 small shitzu dogs early in the morning 8 am and found several dogs aproaching my dogs and trying to bite them not only afraid for them but myself.I think the city has a big problem here regarding this issue.a possible solution is bylaw officers trained and traveling about residential areas lookung or these poor animals.where do you put them you ask? that is a political city hall issue.Thank you .Patrick

We find Curtea de Arges very safe , the area is not hazardous in any way that  we have found in the 9 months we have lived here.The outskirts of the town (Noaptes) is  even quieter and we love it , as for night time the only thing that causes any concern for us is the stray dog's , they howl , bark and can show sign's of aggression .We  believe the Romanian Government will correct this problem sooner or later. One or two local's like to turn the music up a little on a nice day and for some reason ,Religious days, there are quite a lot of these day's compared with England, So to say!  the one time we felt unsafe in Ro was at night in a town called Bacau during a visit ,not a place we would recommend at night but a great place to visit during the day. We have much more to say on many more subject's should you wish to know!.

I don't think any of the replies here are doing Romania any justice. Sure, its just like any other place in that you have to be careful where you go, but it also happens to have, by a very long way, the safest cities compared to many other countries. As someone who has traveled here from 2003-2007 & lived a very full life from 2007 to present, I have never seen a drunken yob (I ignore 50yo 45kg men who cant stand, let alone pose a threat), or even a yob for that matter. I have never heard the word knife used in general news (whereas in the UK, its a weekly event that someone was slashed/ shot /hacked/ mugged by force) & I have never seen agro in a nightspot & this is something I include in my weekly social life.  It is generally safe to walk through any city at 4am alone. How many cities can you say that about?  I was pretty shocked actually to walk though the center of Herestrau park at midnight in late August & see 14-18kids on skateboards in ones & two's. If that was any of the towns I lived in, in the UK (London, Oxford, Leamington, Solihul, Bham, Northampton etc), there is not a chance those kids could escape danger of some kind at those hours in a  city center park alone.

This is what Wikipedia says

Crime in Bucharest is quite low in comparison to other European capital cities, with the number of total offences declining by 51% between 2000 and 2004,[1] and by 7% between 2012 and 2013.[2] Violent and organised crime is quite low (only 16% of total crimes committed), with petty crime and institutional corruption being more widespread

The violent crime rate in Bucharest remains very low, with 11 murders and 983 other violent offenses taking place in 2007.[3] Although violent crimes fell by 13% in 2013 compared to 2012, there were 19 recorded murders (18 of which the suspects were arrested).[2] Relative to the population of approximately 2 million, this makes Bucharest one of the safest European capitals. Although there have been a number of police crackdowns on organised crime gangs, such as the Cămătaru clan and Babubudu gang, organised crime generally has a reduced impact on public life.

When you consider that the majority of murder victims know their attacker (eg a relative or ex-life partner) rather than it being a random act, it becomes apparent that Romanians are generally a peaceful people towards strangers. I don't refer to Roma gypsies when I make that statement. This is an entirely different race with other characteristics.

Having said that, a large % of ATM crime in places like the uk (92% was recently cited!) is committed by Romanian passport holders. Gypsies or non gypsies, I have no idea.  But this is the sort of crime one can expect in tourist areas - what is called petty crime, rather than violent crime.  I have never heard of anyone being mugged by force. There is always a first time, but its important to note, Romania is a very safe place to live.

whitemountainproperty wrote:

I don't think any of the replies here are doing Romania any justice. Sure, its just like any other place in that you have to be careful where you go........ It is generally safe to walk through any city at 4am alone.

You make some valid points, but I think you're considering only the human sources of violence.  As several of us have noted on this topic, a real and present danger in Romania is the wild dogs.  Every year, children are bitten to death and many more people are attacked by street dogs in many parts of Romania.  To say that it's safe to walk through any city at 4 am.....well I would disagree, considering the dogs are often quite active from midnight until about 5 when people start getting out.

I've never had to worry about stray dogs attacking my family in the USA, Germany, UK...well, ANY other country I've spent time or lived in.  The unfortunate thing is, Romania isn't doing its residents and citizens any justice by handling this problem.

Romaniac

I'd agree that it's a lot safer than most European or North American cities, but you still have to be careful. I've been violently mugged once (and I'm not exactly a small guy) and I know another guy who was mugged and lost a finger in a door during the fracas. Another guy I know down the road from me was randomly stabbed in the gut, but he's fine now. I also get to see quite a lot of fights along the main road near where I live, especially as it's not too far from a football stadium. There was also a drunken brawl in the old town recently, can't remember if the victim died or not.

There is crime out there, but maybe not in the places and at the times most expats are likely to be around. Crime stats tend to indicate the population's confidence in the police, so I wouldn't read too much into them. I'd agree with White Mountain though, the vast majority of crime here is petty and opportunistic thieving. There's very little organised violent crime - very little organised anything!

Before The Revolution from '89 most of the bad elements (gypsies) were moved to certain parts of towns and some new districts came to life. Every city has such a zone you're better avoiding, but that just means from time to time you're likely to get asked for your money if you venture there. One of those zones in Bucharest would be Pantelimon.
Rents and apartment prices are obviously cheaper and if you're a foreigner you're likely to end up there and make a wrong impression of Romania.

You won't get stabbed or kidnapped in Romania more than in other european countries. To be honest I was more afraid when i visited Paris.

Some beggars are insistent but you can simply ignore them or say "nu am [bani]" = i don't have any [money]

The situation with stray dogs has gotten better, but i can't say for sure for Bucharest because I live in another city right now. The few stray dogs left on the streets should by now be tagged, neutered and vaccinated.

So generally, you can get mugged and stabbed in every country. If you see a drunk at 3 AM coming towards you it's safer to cross the street because you can never know, same with groups, this is a general rule wherever you live around the globe. Romania is a safe country by normal standards.

If you're not stuck to Bucharest with your work i recommend settling in a smaller city from Transilvania, here we are usually friendlier and more civilized (don't tell that to those from bucharest). The capital is a mix of all sorts of people.

Bogdan_P wrote:

The situation with stray dogs has gotten better, but i can't say for sure for Bucharest because I live in another city right now. The few stray dogs left on the streets should by now be tagged, neutered and vaccinated.

In Iasi, it's gotten worse I'd say, unfortunately.  In the area around my bloc, we used to have only 2 dogs which patrolled the area and kept other dogs away, and they were actually quite friendly to those that lived in the area and were generally quiet.  They actually made the area feel safer in a sense.  Well the city went around collecting dogs, took them away, which would seem the right thing to do.  Instead of there being no dogs around the bloc now, about 30 dogs inhabit the area which constantly fight each other, and are aggressive to people walking around day or night. Throughout the year batches of puppies appear also, so they definitely aren't neutered, and likely not vaccinated.

From this viewpoint, the mayor and others responsible in Iasi have failed miserably at controlling this problem which is unacceptable.  I've been in other smaller cities and really haven't seen any dogs at all.

Romaniac
Expat-Blog Experts Team

It's got better in Bucharest, although I never thought it was such a big problem anyway. Used to be a couple of packs around my block, but they were never aggressive. Now I rarely see any strays. There's a small pack of little ratdog chihuahua-type things, but they're more amusing than threatening.

Yes, it depends on what mayor you have, and in Bucharest there's a General Mayor and then another Mayor for each of the 6 sectors the Capital is divided into. These smaller mayors deal with things like stray dogs, which leads to differences between sectors in many regards.

But anyway, the Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu recently got charged of taking a bribe and, this happened just last month. If you read the press you won't believe what this guy did with no remorse.

After 11 years here, very little that political classes do surprises me any more