I had a friend who lived in a small Canadian town. I decided it must be a great place to live when I opened the local weekly newspaper and read through the "Police Blotter" items.
Half of the stories involved missing pets and animals knocking over garbage cans with unsecured lids. LOL.
I know exactly what you mean. Police Beat in my local paper is what you'd expect for a city - murder, rape, robbery, drugs, etc.
Reading Police Beat in the smalltown Maine paper where I grew up... "Fishing without a license", "Keeping Undersized Lobsters", and so on.
Lots to be said for it.