Sullivan Asks for Study Of City Police Efficiency

The Cambridge City Council will consider Monday night a recommendation from the city manager to have an outside organization assess the effectiveness of the city's police.

Councilors interviewed yesterday were split on whether they will vote money for the survey to be conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of police.

"We need 100 more policemen, not another survey," Councilor Alfred W. Vellucci said.

Arthur D. Little Inc. previously conducted a survey of the department which has been ignored, Vellucci added.

Wylie Supports Study

Councilor David A. Wylie said he supports the study, provided City Manager James L. Sullivan maintains his stated promise to abide by the findings of the association.

"A survey without that is of no value," Wylie said.

Sullivan yesterday reaffirmed his promise to follow the association's findings. "I can't substitute my judgment for theirs. If they say the department needs three men in each patrol car, that's that," he said.

Councilor Saundra Graham, who has criticized the police for not providing adequate coverage of Roosevelt Towers in East Cambridge, said a survey is unnecessary.

"We already know the problem of police-community relations. We know what needs to be done," she said.

Councilor Francis H. Duehay '55, dean of admissions at the Graduate School of Education, said he would rather rely on a professional agency's report than on "amateurs pooling their ignorance."

Sullivan said the association would evaluate top management, supervision methods of the department and training techniques.

Rising crime rates and the "fear with which people walk the streets" prompted him to ask for the survey, Sullivan said.

The council voted unanimously in February to empower Sullivan to increase the police department from 243 officers to 350 to accommodate a "minimum work force" where specified numbers of patrolmen are assigned to each of three work shifts.

However, Sullivan said yesterday that "adding 107 policemen without an indepth study will not solve the problem."

Cambridge Police Chief James F. Reagan said yesterday he is unworried by a possible survey. Reagan declined to answer other questions regarding the study.