City of Pittston Chief of Police Kyle Shumoic, right, reviews notes with Det. Chad Jacobs at City Hall.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
City of Pittston Chief of Police Kyle Shumoic reports crime in the city has dropped 85% in the last 10 years.
PITTSTON — With the Federal Government swarming into cities all over the U.S. over high crime issues, it is safe to say they will not be setting up camp in the City of Pittston.
Recently, Police Chief Kyle Shumosic had to compile statistics for the state regarding crime in the city, and while doing so, he noticed crime had dropped significantly over the last 10 years.
In fact, in 2014, there were 235 reported cases of crime, with the trend going down since. In 2024, there were 35 reported cases, lowering crime by 85% in the last 10 years.
All cases mentioned are considered violent crimes consisting of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
“If you spend enough time in the city, you notice the change, it’s palpable, you feel it,” Shumosic said. “Since I started in 2010, you would walk around town, you’d see the sketchy characters walking around the streets, and you didn’t want to spend time walking around downtown. So now, after lunch, my lieutenant and I walk downtown, and we want to do that, we want to be present downtown.”
Shumosic credits a lot of the shift towards safer times when leadership in the city changed at the end of the 1990s. Mayor Michael Lombardo was elected in 1997.
The Chief also credits Lombardo with the changes, along with subsequent mayors Joe Keating, Donna McFadden-Connors, and Jason Klush, before Lombardo took back the reins as mayor in 2018 until the present.
Although the mayors of the city played an important role in changing the law enforcement landscape, Shumosic said it’s a city team effort that makes Pittston safe.
“This doesn’t happen with just a proactive police department, this takes the Redevelopment Authority, Street Department, Code Enforcement office, everybody has to be involved in this initiative to have numbers like this,” Shumosic said.
He cited Pittston’s Redevelopment Authority, which addresses the issue of blight by taking down abandoned buildings often occupied by squatters and drug users.
Also aiding the success of a safer City of Pittston has been the advancement of technology.
“The difference between the type of policing we did back then (2014) and the type of policing we have now, the technological advancements, and the way we have to build a case for prosecution takes a lot of back-end work,” Shumosic added. “The juries are looking for digital evidence, looking for photographic, video, and they ask if you used the (Pennsylvania State Police) Crime Lab. It takes weeks to follow up for cases.”
The City of Pittston currently employs 10 full-time officers and eight part-time officers, and Shumosic would like to see another full-time or two join the force.
“My guys are operating at a high level,” Shumosic noted. “We have very little slouch here, and that’s a compliment to the guys; we have a family team dynamic, but eventually keeping that high level is daunting, and one or two more full-time officers would help.”
The chief feels that the police force has a great relationship with the residents, and believes the residents feel the same way.
He went on to say events like the city’s Shop with a Cop program, where children get to shop for Christmas items being sold by local vendors with a police officer, as well as firefighters and EMS workers from the city and surrounding areas, including the Pennsylvania State Police.
Chief Shumosic is very happy with the department’s success rate, but he is not resting on his laurels and vows to maintain the current trend, if not improve it.
“I’ll be damned if I don’t leave Pittston City in a better position than I found it,” Shumosic said, on his tenure at the city. “I will be here as long as Mayor Mike wants me.”
