You might have seen that the local police forces run campaigns from time to time to alert home owners to criminal activity in their area. For example, there might be a crime wave involving the theft of car stereo equipment causing a lot of call outs, so the local force will be keen to encourage you to secure your vehicle when unattended and avoid leaving valuables on display, so thieves will not know if there is anything to steal.
The motivation for the police is two fold, firstly, their job is to protect the public from crime, and secondly, to a lesser extent, they are trying to reduce their own workload at a time of budget cuts when their resources are already stretched.