Rudy implemented zero tolerance on quality of life crime and most importantly ordered the NYPD to hold everyone to be ticketed for a minor offense long enough for there to be a warrant check and a parole status check. This sent thousands of criminals back behind bars. iow...he nailed them on the little stuff thereby prohibiting them from doing the big stuff.
You’re onto the major reason right there.
Out here in Nevada, our highway patrol runs every plate/license of people they stop except possibly locals they know personally. They especially run all out-of-state plates.
Why?
Because they find a whole bunch of people with very interesting background coming through/into Nevada. Common traffic stops for little things like running a stop sign frequently yield big busts. Our local NHP officers like to think of out-of-state traffic stops as being like “opening a box of Cracker Jacks — you sometimes get a really nifty prize!” Things like a trunk full of meth or pot, stolen property, felony wants and warrants, you name it. There’s a lot of wanted criminals trying to wander through a itty-bitty little town in the middle of nowhere on their way to somewhere else.