I would agree on this point, generally businesses lie to the public for political reasons, to gin up political favor for their desired outcomes.

Most rich CEOs are out of touch and think crime just comes from "undesirables" and the only way to fix it is to massively increase police presence. In other words, they're authoritarians. This has more to do with creating a narrative about crime and intent to get political support for further instituting a police state and taking the required effort for security off the businesses. It's really about passing the bill for keeping their stores "secure" onto the taxpayer, so they can rely more on local police and on private security less.

The article in question even covers how there are already attempts to write bills targeting this problem at the Federal level. (A bipartisan bill, I might add.)

They are usually pretty honest with their investors. I would expect their investor presentations are a lot more honest, but because that's "economics news" it usually gets fewer headlines or people reporting on it. It would be interesting to contrast Target's investor calls compared to what they're saying publicly. Same with other businesses like Walgreens leaning on the same story.