COPS program teaches HUPD to function better within Harvard community

By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

Even as he faces his audience, Ed Cronin's eyes shift toward the periphery, the indistinct margins where trouble starts. His speaking style is terse, stingy with inflections, a Sheldon Leonard-like growl.

"When I was on the force, I had a particular reputation, and it wasn't exactly touchy-feely. My feeling was a cop is a cop, security is security, and that's it."

Cronin, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Massachusetts State Police Department, now a consultant and a teacher at Western New England College, is speaking to a group of Harvard police officers and guards about community policing. The men and women in the group have volunteered for the initial six-week training program in what promises to be a radical change in the way police work is conducted at Harvard.

Cronin is describing his own conversion to community policing, a philosophy that views the police not as a force imposing order from without, but as an integral part of the community whose effectiveness increases the more deeply they understand community problems, and the more flexible they are in their response. Cronin gives an example.

"Suppose someone calls and says, 'I'm scared because there's no light in the hall and the cellar door is broken.' So you say, 'I'm a cop. I don't deal with stuff like that.' [pause] Yes, you do."

Cronin is part of a consulting team that has designed a comprehensive training and development program called Community-Oriented Problem Solving (COPS). The other members of the team are Richard Boulware '90, a third-year graduate student in sociology, and Mary Grace Duffy and Ed Hudner of the Charles River Consulting Group.

The team was assembled by Herbert Vallier, associate director for finance and administration for Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), who is also in charge of human resources management for the department. He was assisted by Henry Doherty, a project manager, and Kennedy School student Jennifer Kuykendall. It was Vallier's responsibility to oversee the project and make sure the program accomplished the goals that had been set for it.

A pilot group consisting of about a third of the HUPD and University Guards are currently engaged in the program. Eventually, Harvard's entire security force will undergo the COPS training, and subsequently the program will continue on an ongoing basis.

"Good communication is a key component of police work," said Acting General Counsel Anne Taylor, who oversees the HUPD. "It's important that people at the University be comfortable in talking with our police officers. This is a great step toward better police work and a safer Harvard community."

Vallier said that as the training draws to a close (the last session is this week), his team is already planning phase two.

"The next stage will be to organize a series of interactive forum sessions at which students, deans, and other members of the community will be able to communicate with the department. Our work is not done," Vallier said.

One component of the COPS program is simply a crash course on the structure and makeup of the Harvard community, information which, according to the community policing model, is essential to effective police work.

"We're serving the students, faculty, and staff," said HUPD Chief Francis (Bud) Riley. "If we don't know the students, faculty, and staff, we're lost. On the other hand, when we get to know the people we're serving and we have a positive relationship with them, then we have allies."

Riley, who has served as HUPD chief since January 1996, was formerly commander of the Division of Investigations and Intelligence in the Massachusetts State Police. Throughout his career he has earned a reputation for progressive management and has become a true believer in the community policing gospel, expounding its tenets with an almost missionary zeal. From his comments on Harvard, it is clear that he has thought through the special conditions that prevail in a large university community such as this one.

"This is an institution that prides itself on its ability to ask questions," he tells his officers. "It's a big mistake for anyone in this department to respond negatively to anyone asking a question. If you can't tell the truth about what you're doing, then you're probably doing it wrong. Criticism isn't necessarily bad. It gives you the opportunity to change."

Before community policing, such sensitivity to the community has not been emphasized. As is the case with most other police departments, whether they serve towns, cities, or universities, the only training HUPD officers receive is at the police academy, where they undergo both initial and in-service instruction in the methods of police work. Their knowledge of the community comes only through on-the-job experience and personal contacts.

With the COPS program this police training is being supplemented with talks by such key Harvard figures as Dean of Students Archie Epps, Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Bureau of Study Council Director Charles Ducey, acting General Counsel Anne Taylor, and Undergraduate Council President Lamelle Rawlins '99. From them the officers have learned about such things as the academic and psychological demands on students, the diversity of the student body, the structures that regulate student behavior, and many other topics. For many, this information has been a revelation.

"Some of the presenters were amazed that we weren't more cognizant of the total system at Harvard, the proctors, tutors, House masters, resident assistants, the ad board, and so forth, but there's never been anything in place before to convey that information," said Captain Jack Stanton, associate director for the uniformed police and security.

Stanton, a tall, gray-haired man with a clipped, military-style mustache, said that the community policing initiative is the most revolutionary thing to hit HUPD in his 27 years on the force. He believes it will profoundly change the department's relationship with the community.

"We'll no longer be isolated on a hill, so to speak. Instead, we'll be forming a partnership with the Harvard community and trying to open clear lines of communication," he said.

One innovation that should help to improve communication is the creation of three police substations, one in the Yard, one at Radcliffe, and one among the River Houses. Each will be occupied by a sergeant, as well as several patrolmen and security guards, and is designed to make it easier for students and other community members to report problems.

Other ways of enhancing communication between the police and the community are behavioral and are built into the structure of the COPS program. Participants have been honing their abilities in communication, conflict resolution, and problem-solving through a series of role-playing exercises and case studies.

Richard Boulware, the sociology graduate student who helped design this part of the program, said that much of this material stems from in-depth interviews, surveys, and other analytical studies he conducted involving police, students, and other community members.

"This is what I've been trained in," he said. "I found that this approach was very well-suited to the needs of the project, and I feel very happy to be involved. I think the project has been very well thought-out, and that it will be instrumental in improving relations between the police and the community."

Boulware said that to be working with the police represents something of a shift in perspective for him.

"For many years, I felt apprehensive about the police generally, being a black man," he said.

The author of an undergraduate honors thesis on police efforts to suppress the Black Panthers, Boulware remembers a time when it was accepted as a given among his classmates that minority students got hassled by police far more than whites. Now he looks at such beliefs more critically.

"I don't want to downplay the idea, but I feel that, in addition to examining interactions, there are perception issues, and that it's essential to pin down the source of these perceptions -- what is actually happening? Once you've done that, you have the tools to potentially resolve conflicts before they start."

Minimizing conflicts through better communication is a goal held by all parties involved in the COPS program.

"I think it's a chance to help people make a positive impact on the community," said Stanton. He also emphasizes that the program as it now stands is not the last word.

"Once it's in place, the program will be studied, there will be follow-up, and there will be changes. There's no set formula. It all depends on the wishes of the community, but so far it's been very well received, both inside and outside the police department."