_perception_ is exactly the problem, because news love reporting about crimes and if there is any crime which feels (emotionally) bad they love to go one and one about it for weeks, similar any short term crime increase trends, but if there is a short term huge decrease or a long term decrease it's at most a footnote in the 3rd page

e.g. in Germany you are saver now, then 30 years ago

but perception, especially in certain groups, is that crime got way worse

(I'm intentionally using a 30 year comparison to avoid any short term up-down's around covid.)