Police Department Loses Radio Frequency

The Harvard police department lost one of its radio channels six weeks ago, forcing the escort service, parking office and security office to use the same channel and touching off a minor war of words on the crowded airwaves, University security guards said last week.

Several security guards said the radio logjam might hurt their ability to respond in the case of an emergency. One guard, who requested anonymity, said there would be a delay of a "few seconds" in getting the escort service off the radio but that such a delay "might be the difference."

"Say I got a student who breaks his leg at Dunster House," said one guard. "If the escort service is blabbering over the channel, I have to wait `till they're off."

Police Chief Paul E. Johnson last week said students, faculty and staff were not in danger. Johnson acknowledged the loss of a radio channel but said the situation was "temporary."

Johnson said he and other department officials had been "rearranging" the radio systems and were "reapplying" for more radio channels with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

"I think there's plenty of room on the radio service," Johnson said. "This is temporary, and we hope to have more channels soon."

Six guards, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said there have been numerous angry exchanges over the radio between department employees in recent weeks. Many of the exchanges have occurred on weekend nights, when the escort service is in operation and guards are on duty in all undergraduate houses.

One guard interviewed said he had begun turning off his radio because of the noise from his radio.

"There was one night when SSI [the private security force at Harvard Medical School] was on the radio and you couldn't understand them," said one guard. "So a guard got on the radio and says, `why don't you all use the telephone until you learn to speak English.'"

Johnson said he was not aware of angry words being exchanged over the radio.

Victor Tagliaferro, senior engineer at the FCC's New England Field Office, could not confirm if Harvard police had recently lost a radio license. He said the department had failed to reapply for a license two years ago.

But sources in the police and security department charged that an administrative oversight by department officials led to the loss of the channel.

"I cannot envision us losing a channel through anything but negligence," said one police officer.

One Harvard police veteran said the department had experienced recent troubles with the radio system because employees had overused the system and because other localpolice stations channels had "bled over" andinterfered with Harvard's system