ELLENVILLE – Recent controversies over policing methods in other parts of the country and New York City have not dented Chief Phil Mattracion's beliefs when it comes to how the Ellenville Police need to handle their task.

"My philosophy is that law enforcement on the local level needs to be deeply involved with the community," he said in an interview this week. "You can accomplish many things when you are involved that way."

It begins with respecting the people you are charged with protecting.

"I've always told my officers that respect wins respect," he added. "You have to give respect in order to get respect."

Mattracion points to the force's understanding of what they're hired for.

"Our major goal is to get people to comply without putting a hand on them. You want to be able to direct them with the voice," the chief went on. "In these situations, everybody wants to retain their dignity. That's easy 99 percent of the time you give them their dignity. Who cares if they run off their mouth a bit as long as they get in the back of the police car without anything further?"

Mattracion understands the emotions that accompany the sorts of situations that the police have to deal with now and then.

"They're amped up, they need to vent; let them say it," he advises. "We constantly train in ways to get people into the cars or under arrest without having to use force. Really, there is so much more to law enforcement than force! And of course training is a big part of it. Here's the adage to describe this: 'A well disciplined police force is a well trained police force.'"

A big part of community policing comes from having representatives of the community in the uniform.

"My philosophy is that our force should be representative of a mixed community culturally, because that's what this is," he added. "This IS a challenge. We are actively seeking Spanish speaking candidates to become police officers. We recently lost a great asset, who unfortunately was lured away to New York City police. But I encourage officers to take Spanish courses; I have four years of Spanish under my belt and I can understand it and speak it."

Mattracion, who also serves as a member of the local school board, spends time learning all aspects of the Ellenville he serves.

"We have always deeply recruited in our African American community to get individuals to join the force, go to the academy and get degrees," he added. "We love to have people here who grew up in the community and came forward to become police officers and protect the community they came from."

There are various aspects of how this works. Mattracion returns to his thoughts regarding force. "We have tasers, have had them for a couple of years now, and we've only had to use them twice," he pointed out. "They are a very big deterrent; once the taser is taken out we find that people tend to comply... 'Less Lethal Means' has a variety of meanings. Doesn't necessarily mean tasers and pepper spray. We train officers in verbal judo, to get people's compliance without violence."

And that comes back to that fundamental thing — respect.

"Officers have to look the part. Imagine two officers go to a scene to investigate something. One has his uniform pressed, everything in order, boots shined, he looks smart and professional. The other, doesn't. Maybe he's even overweight. Uniform is less than perfect, say," he said. "If you're at the scene, which one of these two officers will you listen to?"