I live in a city that has a serious methamphetamine problem. I live in the suburbs but near a train station. For many years there would be smashed car windows in the street multiple times per week.
The thieves would be looking for small change that people leave for parking (ie $1-2 worth of coins). Break into enough cars and they get enough for some more meth ($20-30 might be enough for a small hit). They would ignore any larger or easily traceable high value items in the vehicles (or houses for that matter), preferring items they could carry in a bag and reasonably claim were their own. The train was often used to transit quickly away, so any ill-gotten gains had to not be obvious.
We never left our cars on the street at night. Our neighbours that had no other option would simply leave the car unlocked or the window down. The cars were never stolen and the cost of replacing multiple windows or door locks per year would quickly exceed the cost of insurance (typically only one window/windscreen replacement per year via insurance would be excess free).
Economic downturns and interestingly Covid have had a huge impact on meth use here. My state has imposed a hard border with the rest of the country, so interstate drug trafficking has had a major decline. Consequently there has been an increase in cannabis use and alcohol consumption has gone way up.
I can't recall the last smashed car window in my street. So there are knock-on effects on crime as well.