I'm putting my tinfoil hat on but this is my theory as an American.

Post 9/11, the Western world became obsessive over a sense of security and we've accepted it as a fact of life. To the point where we accept the TSA at airports without complaint, we accept nationwide surveillance, we operate on the internet with an innate understanding that "someone" at the government is watching everything we're doing. We accept these because we've been conditioned to believe that these tactics keep us safe.

As a lot of the population grows up and never experienced a pre-9/11 world, the government, police unions, etc have to ensure that these overbearing "security" tactics have a reason. Therefore, we highlight these "in your city" local crimes to provide validation for what they're doing.