Well, it's working, isn't it? All the hysterical front-page reports about blood flowing on Toronto's streets, and the sensationalist six o'clock news reports. All the fear-mongering by local politicians who've pegged a law-and-order agenda as their meal ticket.

A National Post/Global News poll, we were told on Tuesday, indicates that 68% of Greater Toronto Area residents believe the city is getting more dangerous, next to just 25% who think it's getting safer. Yesterday, we learned that 17% of GTA residents - including 22% of men - rank increased police funding as their top municipal spending priority, well ahead of transportation (despite the transit system perpetually being on the brink of financial disaster), and roughly even with funding boosts for public housing and all social services combined.

Nothing new there. Poll after poll has shown that Torontonians, like Canadians in most other urban centres, believe their city is getting rougher - and anecdotal evidence from daily conversation tells much the same story.

Thankfully, none of it has anything to do with reality.

As reported in Tuesday's Post, Toronto's crime rate has fallen 11% in the past five years. For all the moaning about uncontrollable gang violence, 62 murders were reported in the city in 2004 - three fewer than the previous year. And statistics show violent crime dropping in the neighbouring York and Peel regions.

Drawing favourable comparisons between Canada and the U.S. may be unfashionable, but when it comes to crime it's impossible not to. In Canada's largest city, fewer than two out of every 100,000 people are murdered each year - less than one-sixth the rate in America's 10 largest. Despite their city's much-heralded Giuliani-era clean-up, New Yorkers are more than three times as likely to be murdered as Torontonians.

Yes, there are a few neighbourhoods where crime is on the rise and better prevention strategies are needed. But most of the pampered pundits who insist they're in grave danger have never set foot in those areas.

So why the massive gap between perception and reality?

Blame the media, in part, for milking every drug shooting or sex assault for all it's worth. Sensationalism sells, so the same crime is often covered on the local news for several days straight, creating the perception that one is constantly being committed.

Blame popular culture, perhaps, as well. When American TV shows, movies and music focus so heavily on violent criminals, there may be a tendency to believe the criminal elements that serve as artistic muse south of the border are invading Canada as well.

But blame, most of all, those who have created a false sense of vulnerability and victimhood to suit their political ends.

In this category, recently departed police chief Julian Fantino (now Ontario's Commissioner of Emergency Management) was the worst offender. Whether to distract from his force's well-publicized problems, to build up his own profile for a future political career, or merely to solicit more police funds and tougher criminal laws, Mr. Fantino spent much of his tenure insisting that - statistics be damned - crime really was on the rise.

"Violent crime is up ... it's been going up for years ... we're seeing an explosion of guns and violence," he insisted in 2003. The city, he pronounced, was descending into "anarchy."

No matter how ridiculous the rhetoric, a fawning media ate it up. And so did local politicians.

For those holding or seeking to hold elected office, the challenge is always to convince constituents of their usefulness - a daunting task for municipal councillors or backbench MPs. So many promote the myth that local residents are in dire need of protection from the mean streets.

In doing so, they play on some of our worst fears and prejudices - including a latent xenophobia. The communities around us, the subtext goes, are not what they used to be. In a city where visible minorities will soon make up the majority, it finds an audience - even if only a small number of fear-mongerers explicitly push it.

The irony of all this is that the same people advancing the myth of an increasingly dangerous society may inadvertently create one. Convince law-abiding citizens that they're safest to stay off the streets, and criminals will flourish.

If we're not careful, perception and reality may eventually meet.