City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Chief-To-Be Described as Involved, Sensitive
Biofile |
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| Name: Richard P. Basile |
| Position: Police chief of Ellenville Village Police Department. He will become Ithaca's police chief July 21 |
| Career Highlights: Basile joined the Arbor Hill unit of the Albany Police Department in 1972. Ascended to lieutenant and patrol supervisor in 1989 after serving as commander of the Administrative Services Bureau to detective sergeant to planning planning officer for the neighborhood policing unit. He also served as director of the Zone 5 Law Enforcement Academy. September 1989-November 1992, was director of training for the Bureau for Municipal Police at the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Joined Ellenville as police chief in November 1992; introduced community policing, modernized records, expanded Drug Awareness Resistance Education to encompass grade, middle and high school students and a parents' component. Guest lecturer at College of Saint Rose, Siena College, Junior College of Albany and State University of New York on community policing, industrial security and police stress. |
| Education: Masters degree, Russell Sage College, in public service with public administration concentration, May 1979; bachelor's degree in social science, College of St. Rose, May 1977; several state and federal police-related courses and seminars |
| Family: Four adult sons, ages 19-26; companion Katie Gilroy, who also has two sons ages 8 and 11. |
| Hobbies: Motorcycle riding, photography and camping. |
Ellenville Village Police Chief Richard P. Basile, 50, who was announced Wednesday as the new head of the Ithaca Police Department, was in a band called "The Clouds" that had a long-ago gig on campus.
Basile will leave his current post July 18 and take up residence in downtown Ithaca by his first day on the new job, July 21.
Ellenville Police Sgt. Phil Mattracion said that while his village and department are losing a leader, Ithaca is gaining an administrator who is fair, lets officers do the job they were trained to do and keeps an open door for virtually everyone.
"If there was ever a picture on the scales of the balance beam of justice, it would be Rich Basile," he said.
One thing Basile wants to bring to Ithaca is a bolstered commitment to solving quality-of-life issues such as litter, noise and loitering. Ellenville officers do this now by walking their beats, performing security checks on local homes and businesses during each shift and sometimes delivering prescriptions for sick elderly people.
"Most people in life, God willing, aren't victims of crime," Basile said. "So if we can improve quality-of-life issues, that improves the image of the police department and that [sic] what it's all about: people feeling comfortable with police officers."
He said he also hopes to commit resources to start or enhance youth activities such as the Drug Awareness Resistance Education program, the Police Athletic League and a youth court where local young people conduct court for first-time nonviolent cases normally heard in Family Court.
Mattracion said Basile gathered a small circle of officers Friday to tell them he had accepted the Ithaca job. Monday, that announcement was made to the department as a whole.
"He's leaving us. We don't want him to go," officer Vanessa Nixon said. "We're really torn apart losing him right now."
Basile hired Nixon as the department's first African-American woman officer four years ago. Basile said he encouraged her to move from her job of four years as dispatcher to police officer after watching many of his officers turn to her for help completing police reports.
Nixon called Basile a good boss, a good friend and a father figure to whom officers could turn for anything. She said she considered him to give her away at her wedding in August until he accepted the position in Ithaca.
Georgine Matichuk, office manager at Vision Associates in downtown Ellenville, said she wanted to chain Basile in her basement so that he couldn't leave the village.
Since Basile's arrival in 1992, Matichuk said the village has seen more drug arrests, which police officials said numbered more than 500 in the past five years. He said there has been more visible involvement of village police with state police and the Ulster County Sheriff's Department and the respect of many of Ellenville's youth.
"We've had nothing like this prior to Chief Basile's coming here," she said. "He hasn't been here long enough to have this type of impact, but he has."
Joe Logan, a businessman and activist, said Basile will be missed. The chief had a reputation of supporting his officers but also supporting youth organizations. Logan's only complaint was Basile's busy involvement did not allow him to get out much Ellenville's streets [sic].
"I thought he was good for our community," he said.
Although he was happy for his boss and friend's advancement, Mattracion had one regret in Basile's leaving.
Basile accompanied Mattracion on a camping trip with Ellenville youth to Ulysses' Spruce Row Campsite on Kraft Road last year. He thought that gave Basile too much of a taste of Ithaca.
"I should have never brought him up there," Mattracion said as he pushed his chief in the side.
The Ithaca Journal
June 26, 1997
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