K9 officer honored with award in McCandless

Shawn Davis is the 2023 Officer of the Year for the Town of McCandless Police Department.

Davis was presented with the award at the March 11 McCandless town council meeting on March 11 by police Chief Ryan Hawk, who was accompanied by other members of the department.

“He engages the public in every opportunity,” Hawk said about Davis. “He engages the public with professionalism, compassion, empathy and everything that all of us, including all these officers behind me, strive to do every day.”

The award is given annually in honor of Albert Devlin, a McCandless police officer who was killed in the line of duty on Jan. 8, 1973.

Davis, a 2008 North Allegheny High School graduate, joined the McCandless department in 2019. He acknowledged the efforts of his fellow officers.

“I’m not any more deserving than any of my co-workers,” he said.

Hawk said Davis volunteered to become the K9 handler after the retirement of Sgt. Bryan Madden and K9 Joy in 2022.

K9 Siraly, originally from the Czech Republic, is 2½-year-old German Shepherd, and the second K9 to be working for the Town of McCandless after Joy’s retirement, Davis said.

Siraly is trained in narcotics detection, tracking, area searches, building searches, and apprehension, Davis said. The partners have been in service since last August after initial training in June.

“When I got hired five years ago in August, my main goal was to provide the best service I could in the community I grew up in, and that will always be kind of my goal moving forward,” Davis said. “I appreciate the recognition, but I wouldn’t do anything different.”

A plaque with the names of the officers of the year, starting in 2017, is in the lobby of the McCandless police station, located in town hall on Grubbs Road.