Yep
I'm sure you're right about the concerns of the people of Arizona. The issue of crime has been used to tart up the issue, to push the fear buttons, and to provide a more socially acceptable rationale than expense, which can be portrayed as greed or shortsighted penny-pinching. Crime statistics...if they had backed up the argument...could have been compelling. But, it turns out, it was just more bovine excrement.