That's bunk! Especially if you're concerned with crime.
Crime statistics should be based on crimes per-capita. In other words the number of crimes committed per 100,000 population.
This is done for a good reason.
Would you rather live in city of 1 million that had 300 murders, or a city of 200,000 that had 275 murders?
It is a fairly realistic measure of crime data on which insurance companies will price their policies.