Should policy decisions be based more on statistics or anecdotes

The media only goes by what is the most sensationalist. But too few people care about or pay attention to statistics. The result is that problems are misrepresented to people. A good example is that crime in general and violent crime and property crime specifically have been going down for the past few decades. School violence has declined as well. But policies continue to be made based on the opposite perception even to the point of paranoia. This is serious as this overreaction could ruin some kids lives, and add to the "school-to-prison pipeline" effect. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/upshot/perceptions-havent-caught-up-to-decline-in-crime.html?_r=0 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/13/school-violence-security-sandy-hook/3446023/ But that is just an example. People ignore statistics when it comes to the evidence for climate change, for evaluating government programs, and for economic policies, among others. If we want to make our lives better, in all respects we should pay more attention to statistics and remind ourselves when a shocking story is in the media that it is just an anecdote, and look up the relevant statistics to get a more objective view of the situation.