Murders and what not are functions of city, county and state governments.

Sure. As well as region-specific factors. I don't know the specifics of Seattle, so can't really comment. I did notice when we were there a large concentration of drugged-out vagrants just up-hill from the piers, but also a STRONG police presence there. But I don't know what is behind that. There may be things peculiar to Seattle that are in play. Is Tacoma similarly affected? Puyallup?

San Francisco is having a problem with car break-ins. Mark Rober (inventor of the glitter bomb) actually tackled that as part of his glitter bomb series, and determined that SF was NOT closing down a known fencing operation (for whatever reason). So...lax enforcement? Seemed like it.

The OP was talking about national statistics. While your perceptions are colored by local events (as are mine), zoom-out a bit and overall things are substantially better. That may not comfort someone in a "hot zone", but the fact remains that nationally it is improving.