Originally Posted by TheDoc

It relates... people report all types of wacky crap, the less they're able to respond, solve/crack/discover, etc.. the less people report.

Polices have changed because of budgets, some crimes in some locations have to be reported through the Internet and everyone doesn't have the Internet, thus the crime is not reported. Then in some areas the support is so low that getting through to someone to report the crime is almost impossible, so people give up.

When the public is aware the police force is already thin, like when they quit responding to traffic accidents when nobody is hurt, people can't see the police as often, so they tend to report less crimes knowing it's pointless, even more so with property crimes.

Rape also falls into this category, if an area totally fails to handle the cases due to work load/money, the amount of reported rapes drop. That doesn't mean less are happening, far more happen than ever get reported, far less get discovered through medical discovery, the chain goes on.

It's a level of confidence that someone can help them and that branches down throughout society with all crimes.