Possible Police Reorganization To Await Choice of New Chief

Harvard will postpone consideration of a plan to reorganize the University police department until a successor to retiring police chief Robert Tonis is chosen, Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for administration, said yesterday.

Under the reorganization plan the police department would come under the control of a new public-safety department. The new department would also coordinate the student security-guard program, a fire-prevention program and enforcement of University parking regulation.

Earlier administration plans called for a decision on the possible organizational change before the naming of a new police chief, but the administration has now decided to place "primary emphasis" on finding Tonis's replacement, Hall said yesterday.

Hall also said the administration "can go either way" on the reorganization proposal and that the decision whether to accept the plan will be guided by Tonis's successor.

A committee directing the search for a new police chief has been meeting every two weeks since the beginning of March. Hall, the committee's chairman, said yesterday he expects a new chief to be appointed by late summer or early fall.

Tonis will leave office at the end of the 1974-75 academic year.

David L. Johnson '74, the only undergraduate member of the search committee, said yesterday applications for the chief's position have been coming in at a rate of 10 to 40 a day.

The committee expects it will eventually receive over 200 applications for the job, Hall said.

After a preliminary culling process to be conducted jointly by the University Personnel Office and the search committee, 40 to 50 of the applicants will be interviewed for the post, Hall said.

The search committee is looking for a chief who will "be acceptable by reason of his personality," Hall said. He added that the primary qualifications for the job include:

* An understanding of the University environment;

* An appreciation of the academic process;

* Knowledge of and a dynamic approach to police work; and,

* Experience in community problems.

The search committee has consulted extensively with both Tonis and current members of the police force, Johnson said.