Those issues could be solved through design, and the second does give a clear message (‘Crime’s down. Yay.’), but the reasons you give for trying to improve on the first one are ultimately the reasons I like it – the seasonal (or other) reasons for the ups and downs provoke more questions and discussion, and I think that would be a more profitable way to both engage the public and hold the police to account, then a simple ‘crime’s down’, which is a certainly a good bit of communication to the public but doesn’t invoke any interest or lead to further improvements. 

I guess really I’m just saying that they’re two different types of message, rather than better/worse. 

Though the third graph actually shows that recently crime’s gone up.