Are you suggesting that voters should only care about crime if the per capita rate reaches a certain threshold? Would the threshold be benchmarked against other cities, states, or other countries? And once it's high enough (i.e. crime rate in Mainstreet USA reaches Venezuela's crime rate), what course of action should be taken? Are voters allowed to act on it then, and what should their action be in your view?

p.s. Americans can overestimate minority population sizes for any number of reasons besides news media, including over-representation in fictional media, as is the case with African Americans.