I see a lot of "funding" and "resources stretched thin" comments here, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned the role of the local district attorney (+judge) in this. In my opinion, his role is comparably important of a factor in the current situation. And among people living here, the involvement of our district attorney has definitely been been mentioned as a significant factor during discussion on the topic.

Tl;dr on it is that the DA refuses to prosecute a lot of crimes that should be, and the judge lets out a giant amount of violent offenders on bail (as well as heavy majority of people who are in for a non-violent offense, like stealing a car or brandishing a stolen firearm, not even talking about robberies). Yes, even for those who had history of not showing up to court hearings. It basically started being discussed as a revolving door system. Which is why cops don't bother much with "minor" crimes like robberies anymore. Why waste such needed resources, if the person will just be released the day after anyway, at least with more hardcore crimes there will be a chance that something will come out of it maybe.

Case in point, here are two lengthy articles from two major local publications, Seattle Times[0] and King5[1], discussing the issue. A lot of good information there, but I quoted a couple specific examples that were pretty illustrative.

> In a 2019 domestic violence case, a Seattle man was charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Police said he was punishing her for leaving their apartment and leaving behind their crying infant. The NCBF paid $2,000 to bail him out of jail. Three weeks later he was charged with a new crime: allegedly returning to his girlfriend’s house and killing the baby.

> [...] the defendant, 50-year-old Michael Sedejo, was originally charged with assaulting and robbing a 65-year-old man in Seattle’s City Hall Park on April 13, 2021. The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office asked the court to set bail at $20,000. The prosecutor argued the bail was necessary “based on the likelihood that the defendant may commit a violent offense…The state is concerned about the safety of the community if the defendant is released from custody.” The judge lowered the bail to $5,000, and public records show the NCBF paid it in cash. Two months later, Sedejo was charged with murdering Bradley Arabie in City Hall Park with a pocketknife.

This became such an issue, the recently elected prosecutor was literally running on a campaign that promises she will actually do the prosecution[2].

0. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/hard-o...

1. https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle-charity-gro...

2. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-...