I can't speak for the people in your community but here in the UK 'tough on crime' most certainly does mean getting tough on what is called 'antisocial behaviour'. In our recent Police and Crime Commissioner elections it was these lesser 'antisocial' offences that were the central campaign point for just about all candidates (along with 'giving victims more say').

The result of this attitude is that we lock up people for 4 years for joking about starting a riot on Facebook[1].

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls...