Most recently officers in the Marion and Peabody police departments, respectively, Duane McCarty and Jim Philpott bring to their new positions more than 30 combined years of law enforcement within the county.

That's exactly why Sheriff Lee Becker said he chose them to fill the voids left by former deputies Rollin Schmidt and Mike Vineski.

"They're very familiar with that end of the county," Becker said of McCarty and Philpott. "I know these (two) and I've seen them work. They treat people with respect and they do what they need to do.

"They come from this community, they've lived in the community all of their lives and they will take care of the community."

For McCarty, taking care of a community starts with its children.

"I really like working with kids," he said. "A goal of mine is to get the kids on your side to respect you, so that when they're older, they're not apt to get in trouble."

For much of the past 28 years, the Florence native has been serving the Florence and Marion police departments in both part-time and full-time capacities.

While McCarty is grateful to Marion Police Chief Mike Soyez and the city of Marion for employing him as a full-time officer for the past two years, he's also excited to take on the challenge of expanding his service beyond the town's borders.

"I plan on working the smaller communities-patrolling some country roads that sometimes get forgotten because you're just too busy," he said.

Most important, McCarty plans to spend quality time in the classroom and the schoolyard.

"If kids are out playing ball or something, I plan on stopping and introducing myself to get rapport with kids-to try not to have them scared of a cop like most kids are," he said.

He also plans to take to some of the other schools a problem-solving course he learned at a seminar in Salina and has been teaching to sixth-graders in Marion.

The course's name is DRAGNET, which stands for decision-making, responsibility, assertiveness, goals, needs, ethics and trust.

"It's worked really well in Marion the past two years," McCarty said. "It's a real good class that gets the kids and me one-to-one. I would like to try to continue that in some of the schools that don't have city police."

McCarty said he hopes he can help more kids and adults alike to realize that law enforcement officials are there to work for them, not against them.

"The biggest challenge is to get the public on your side, to get people to respect the police," he said. "But I enjoy working with people, and this is a good job to do that."

Peabody native Philpott agreed that helping others is what it's all about, although that often means dealing with the worst in people.

But Philpott is fully prepared to handle that, as his specialty will be property crimes and fire investigation, he said.

Philpott said he is looking forward to taking more training courses in those areas as well as having more chances in a given day or week to put his skills to work.

"It's basically the same thing as in Peabody, except on a faster pace," said Philpott, who started in Peabody reserve in 1998 and then went full-time in 2003.

"It's not like in Peabody, where you get a call and you're there in a couple minutes," he added. "You may be on the opposite end of the county and it may take 20 to 30 minutes."

No matter where he's at in the county or with whom he's dealing, Philpott said because the law treats each person fairly, so will he.

"It doesn't matter if it's a friend of mine for all my life or a relative or what, it's all going to come down to the same thing in the law," he said.

"Generally, though, if it's family, you'd call another officer out to handle it, so someone can't come back and say, 'Well, that was his family; he showed favoritism.'"

But the former ranchhand doesn't mind admitting that he has a favorite pastime when he's not with wife Christina and their kids or volunteering as a firefighter or an emergency medical technician.

"I do a lot of cowboying on the side," he said. "That's kind of my ultimate love-getting on a horse and being out in the middle of a pasture somewhere."

But Philpott may not have much time for cowboying with all of the projects Becker has lined up for his deputies in the next several months, particularly cracking down on methamphetamine use.

"I think the best way to put it is, 'Coming to a meth house near you is the Marion County sheriff's office,'" Becker said. "With these guys and their contacts and their experience with that, we're going to start working real hard on that."

Becker knows firsthand the advantages of having a background living and working in the community served by the sheriff's office, having been appointed to sheriff in 2000 after 15 years with the Peabody PD.

"You could double the size of the sheriff's office, but it means nothing without the support of the community," he said.

"So by hiring these people from within the community, it'll give us the eyes and ears that we need to start getting those projects done.

"They know the people, and that gives them extra tools when they're out there working-the resources they need to get the job done."