That has been the trend for decades in lots of other developed countries as well. It doesn't have to be in any way because of increased means of surveillance.

Correct. It's another thing that's hard to come to terms with - I know that statistically robberies, theft and violent crimes are going down. But I also know several people who had their garages broken into and their bikes and cars stolen. And in every one of these cases, the police won't even show up to look at the damage, take fingerprints, literally nothing - it's just "here's a case number, contact your insurer, we'll call you back if we ever find anything". In fact I know one guy in Manchester who had his Range Rover stolen, then found it in a supermarket car park 2 days later. Rang the police and they were literally like "well, if you have the keys then just....take it back". And he was like "wait, you don't want to come over, check it for fingerprints, drugs, any trace of anything that would help you find the criminals?". And they basically said no, they have no officers available, so just take the car and tell your insurer the case is closed and you got the car back, that's it.

I know the anecdotes don't help - they are just anecdotes. But man, it really doesn't fill me with confidence that I'd be given much help if this happened to me.