Looking at this from "but in real life" perspective is hopeless, besides drawing inspiration from some aspects of real life SAES is miles away from it in all ways, I don't see why this one example would be different. It should instead be viewed from the perspective of gameplay balance, cops are getting their asses handed over to them in all activities with the exception of SRs and random individual encounters on patrols, they manage to do well in those situations by being able to locate and surprise wanted players in order to get close to them and land an arrest with melee nightstick attacks.
Criminal spawns having an ability to locate cops makes these encounters yet another activity that is a pain in the ass, meanwhile removing the K panel from cops would mean less interactions between players in general which can not be considered a good thing in any case. Cops need to locate and attempt to arrest criminals, that is their only purpose. Criminals do not need to be able to locate cops, macroing "/loc all cop names" was never an intended part of the gameplay and that's an undisputable fact. It almost entirely eliminated the stealth aspect of cop gameplay which was always important and present.
Criminals do not need to have an advantage in absolutely every single situation, sometimes they can be at a disadvantage just like cops so often are.