alt Hacker News> And I’m not sure how you would expect media institutions to address petty crime. I guess they could ask local leaders and local law enforcement about it.?
Uh... yes? Journalists used to report on crimes and then ask police and town leaders questions on how they're addressing it. And then do follow-up stories weeks or months later, to report on (lack of) progress and again ask police and town leaders questions.
Maybe many moons ago, when newspapers had an abundance of reporters, and relatively low crime / competing issues otherwise?
But I'm not sure I can recall, even in a local paper or a local TV news broadcast, seeing articles / segments about a random individual having their car broken in to or being robbed.
Edit: I take that back, I have seen reports of robberies (specifically armed robberies) in local news, but not so much car break ins.