PROVIDENCE Channel 6 reporter Jim Hummel relished the time he filled his pockets with metal objects — screw driver, box cutter, hunting knife — and strolled through a metal detector at the old Traffic Tribunal on Harris Avenue on camera to demonstrate that the machine wasn’t working, even though the guards were acting as though it were.

Or the time he found a Warwick animal control officer spending hours at home in the middle of the workday, with his city truck running in the driveway.

And then there’s the politics of North Providence, a gift to reporters that keeps on giving. It was Hummel who broke the story last month alleging that acting North Providence Mayor John Sisto Jr. illegally enrolled his grandson in a North Providence school, complete with video of Sisto picking up his grandson from a Providence house in a town Jeep.

It was hardly Hummel’s only North Providence piece. Last week, it was Hummel who broke the story about North Providence fire chief Steve Catanzaro, who received $104,000 upon his retirement for unused vacation time and sick days accumulated over two decades.

“When someone perceives you as owning the story, they come to you,” Hummel said. “We got a lot of calls about North Providence. Nine out of 10 times, the tips you get turn out to be useless. The key part is making sure you chase down all 10 . . . when he [Sisto] pulled up to pick up his grandson, it was like hitting the lottery.”

That story led to the bizarre spectacle of Sisto inviting reporters into his North Providence home to show them Cocoa Krispies and children’s clothing as proof that his grandchild really lived there. “I thought that was the best local TV since Channel 10 unveiled the Corrente tape,” said WPRO talk show host John DePetro, referring to an FBI videotape that showed an aide to former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. accepting a bribe.

Sisto went on to lose to Charles Lombardi in a Democratic primary Feb. 27.

At 47, Hummel is the senior reporter on the Channel 6 staff, having made the transition from newspaper reporter at the Providence Journal in 1995.

“He’s out there hustling. To me, he still has the fire in the belly, the way I feel I still have the fire,” said Channel 12’s Sean Daly, a former colleague of Hummel’s at Channel 6. “He’s still chasing after the bad guys.”

Channel 6 is the third-ranked station in the market, often playing David to the Goliaths of Channels 12 and 10. Hummel appears to enjoy his role as the hand on the slingshot.

“Working for a station that is behind in the ratings is not easy,” Hummel said in an interview last week at Channel 6’s Providence studio. “I’ve had news directors who wanted to re-invent the wheel. But I just love getting up and being in the chase every day. I think the past year has been the best I’ve had professionally . . . it’s been a year that made people pay attention to what we’re doing.”

Hummel gave much of the credit to the station’s news director, Edwin Hart, a broadcast veteran who had run Channel 12 in the ’80s and came to Channel 6 in September 2004. Hart said that when he came to the station, he thought two staffers in particular were underused: sports director Ken Bell, and Hummel.

Hart revived Channel 6’s investigative feature “You Paid for It!” which looks at the misuse of taxpayer dollars, and gave it to Hummel.

“I asked Ed how often he wanted a ‘You Paid for It!’ and he said, ‘When you have a good one to give me.’ ” Hummel said. Some of them, he said, took weeks, even months, to put together.

“These are not million-dollar stories. They’re not going to win any Peabody awards,” Hart said. “But they illustrate what this lovely state is all about — if you can get away with it, you will.”

But “You Paid for It!” is only part of Hummel’s job. Adding up his years at The Journal and Channel 6, Hummel’s been reporting in Rhode Island for 25 years, and he’s the station’s go-to guy for big political stories. During the Plunder Dome trial of Cianci, for example, Hummel logged an enormous amount of airtime.

He’s also taken over Channel 6’s Sunday morning interview show, 6 News on the Record, since Truman Taylor retired at the end of 2005.

Hart said Hummel needs to be reined in occasionally.

“He’s so enthusiastic, and so out in front of every story, he’d lead [the newscast] every night if he could,” Hart said. “He’s got an ego. But if you didn’t have an ego, you’re not going to make it very far in this business.”