I don't think the article's thesis is that people shouldn't care about local crime news. Its main concern seems to be that a company who directly benefits from

I don't think the article's thesis is that people shouldn't care about local crime news. Its main concern seems to be that a company who directly benefits from people being fearful (justifiably or not) of neighborhood crime, is also getting into the business of disseminating crime news, something which is known to increase people's fear of crime. The author points out that news organizations have traditionally been saturated with crime news, because of its popularity with readers, and that this might contribute to the public's skewed perception of actual crime incidence and trends. Obviously, Amazon is not just a traditional news publisher, and may end up bringing innovation and doing things much better than journalists ever did. But there has been reason to believe big tech can end up being blindsided and/or fail when trying to disrupt traditional domains and problems.