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Snohomish County prosecutor says staffing limits push nonviolent cases to cities, urging county funding talks
Summary
Snohomish County Prosecutor Jason Cummings told the Mukilteo City Council that limited prosecutorial staffing and growing digital evidence workloads mean many nonviolent felonies are being declined or reduced to misdemeanors, shifting costs and caseloads to cities and municipal courts.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Jason Cummings told the Mukilteo City Council on June 8 that his office is operating with historic staffing constraints while the volume and complexity of evidence have grown, forcing a sharp focus on violent crime.
"I'm always gonna focus on the most serious crimes," Cummings said, explaining that murders and assaults receive priority when charging decisions are made. He said that new kinds of digital evidence — body‑worn camera footage, social‑media material and device pings — have lengthened review times, with some referrals that once took a couple of hours now requiring 10 to 15 hours of review.
Cummings said those limits mean some cases that would historically have been charged as felonies in superior court are now being declined or handled as misdemeanors in municipal court, which shifts costs for public defense, prosecution and jail time to cities. "What should have been a state case in superior court is now gonna become City of Mukilteo versus John Doe," he said, noting the local budget implications.
He also described imbalances between deputy prosecuting attorneys (DPAs) and public defenders handling involuntary treatment act (ITA) cases and other dockets, which can increase motions and litigation for prosecutors. The office has defended recent homicide convictions — citing DNA evidence and cold‑case work — but said resources for that work are hard‑won amid steady caseload pressure.
Cummings urged municipal leaders to press county and state budget authorities about the effect of unfunded mandates and staffing shortfalls. He offered to pull and share local referral data to help Mukilteo quantify how many cases are being diverted to municipal prosecution, saying, "I'm happy to go back and work on pulling some of that data."
The mayor and councilmembers emphasized the local impact and discussed the need to coordinate with county executives and councilmembers on funding and public‑defense capacity. The prosecutor recommended that cities raise these operational pressures with county decisionmakers during the budget process.
Next steps: Cummings said he will work with Mukilteo staff to assemble referral data for the city to use in intergovernmental budget discussions. The council did not take formal action during the session.
