How about, "an area where a recent rash of break-ins by car thieves occured to cars parked in that lot"? Are you more comfortable with that, rather than my abbreviated "high crime area"?
Or was the cop lying about the car thieves and had told the dispatcher he was going to park at that specific location just to get some sleep?
Gee, I don't know. Should we take the word of a disgraced and fired cop or the statistics from the State of Missouri's website.
Tough call...