Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate from the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office will be the next chief for the Aberdeen Police Department. Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson announced his selection of Shumate at Wednesday’s city council meeting, and council members voted unanimously to approve the decision.

Shumate told The Daily World he’s looking forward to the opportunity to work with and improve Aberdeen’s department after 29 years at the Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m pretty jacked about it,” he said. “I like challenges. Over the last five and a half years with the criminal division, I always focused on what we could do to better improve the Sheriff’s Office. I’m really looking forward to bringing that mindset to the agency.”

It has been almost 10 months since the retirement of Chief Bob Torgerson in July 2017, Deputy Chief Dave Timmons has served as the interim chief.

Both Shumate and his wife are born and raised Harborites, and he said during Wednesday’s meeting that he has a lot of friends and family in the community. He grew up in Montesano and graduated from Montesano High School. He has worked at the Sheriff’s Office since he was just 21.

In 2011, Shumate completed a two and a half month training for police managers at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. It’s considered a prestigious program for law enforcement training, and Shumate said it took him over two years to successfully apply. Those who apply for it, he said, are expected to eventually hold leadership roles.

During the training, Shumate took courses that dealt with engaging juveniles, interview techniques, and criminal law, as well as a media course.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Shumate praised current Aberdeen Lt. Kevin Darst, the other finalist for the position, and said he looks forward to working with him.

“(He) would’ve done an outstanding job as well.”

Shumate said he’s still unsure when his start date will be, but if background checks were completed quickly he said it could be around July 1.

Whenever he does start, Shumate said he would probably need a month to finish assessing the department and its employees before he makes any significant changes.

“It really is going to take me some time, because I plan on educating myself on all their policies,” he said.

Shumate has attended the past couple Aberdeen City Council meetings, which have featured significant debate on the two recently-passed ordinances designed to prevent vagrancy and panhandling downtown. Shumate said he supports the ordinances and that the department would enforce them. However, issues like addressing illegal drug activity would take higher priority, he said.

“As the leader of that agency, we will engage in people who are violating those particular ordinances,” said Shumate. “With that, obviously, we have priorities. My priority lies with dealing with illegal drug activities within the city, and dealing with those ordinances is a lower priority.”