Lucy Gellman File Photo
Shumway reading to schoolkids.
“According to police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway …”
Get ready to read that a lot in local news stories: Shumway has been tapped as the new public information officer (PIO) for the police department. He starts the post Monday, replacing Capt. Anthony Duff, who retired Wednesday.
That news was conveyed by police Chief Renee Dominguez Tuesday night at the Zoomed monthly meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners.
Shumway received the Police Cross, awarded to those injured in the line of duty, as well as the department’s Medal of Honor, its highest medal awarded for bravery. Shumway, along with Officer Eric Pesino, received that recognition after they were shot while responding to a 2017 incident on Elm Street in which a youth worker was shot multiple times by her husband in a domestic dispute. With the help of the city’s SWAT team, fire department, and neighboring police departments, the suspect was apprehended, the victim survived, and no officers or civilians died.
Shumway began his career walking a beat in Newhallville as part of the reinvigoration of community policing back in 2012.
Shumway has also walked a beat in SoHu (the East Rock area south of Humphrey). He has participated in the department’s literacy partnerships as well.
Chief Dominguez said the decision was made to fill the PIO position with a line officer as opposed to a supervisor in part because the department is in the throes of trying to restore its ranks.
“We have few supervisors to spare,” she said.
The move is also a return to past practice. Before Duff, the police spokesman, beginning in 2011, was Officer David Hartman.
Congratulations to officer Scott Shumway to his new position. I hope this will be an open, transparent and informative source of information between the public, the press, and the police department during his time on the job.