The Rise and Fall of HUPD

One day this spring, a sign went up on a wall in the University police watch commander's office--the nerve center of Harvard's police and security department.

In large printed letters, the political campaign-style sign advertises a candidate "for chief." Beneath the sign is a picture of Curly from the Three Stooges.

The watch commander who put it up says the sign is nothing more than a tribute to "classic comedy." But other officers say the sign makes light of the similarity in appearance between Curly and Police Chief Paul E. Johnson, who are both bald. And it isn't all that funny. The sign, they say, symbolizes two disturbing trends about the police and security department and its chief.

For one, the sign indicates a lack of respect for the department leaders, especially Johnson. In addition, it shows just how inaccessible and out-of-touch the chief of police has become. The watch commander's office is just down the stairs in 29 Garden St. from Johnson's office--a 10-second walk away, though officers say Johnson rarely, if ever, walks there.

These are not insignificant charges. While many Harvard managers are called out-of-touch, they do not preside, as Johnson does, over a department charged with providing 24-hour protection for students, faculty and staff.

Something about the department needs to change, employees say. The solution, many officers say with a nostalgic tinge in their voices, is to bring back the past.

In 1983, the police department was a different place. In the 10 years since, policing, technology, staff education and investiga-

Something about the department needs to change, employees say. tions have all improved--a rise brought into focus this year by the widely commended arrest of student-impersonator and career confidence artist James Arthur Hogue.

In matters of personnel and employee relations, however, the Harvard University Police Department has fallen far.

When Saul L. Chafin left as police chief a decade ago, the department stood at its apex. He had been widely credited for rebuilding morale after the troubled tenure of David L. Gorski, who was criticized for the same conduct Johnson now stands accused of being maccessible, arbitrary in decision-making and unapproachable. Chafin himself was so well-respected--and morale was so high that he received, by one count, five going away parties.

'A Paragon of Professionalism'

Johnson, a Boston police area commander in Roxbury and Mattapan, arrived at Harvard in December 1983. Then General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 said he hired the new chief, who did not have the experience in college police work that Chafin had, because of his reputation as a paragon of professionalism.

The era of good feeling quickly evaporated. Two months after Johnson took over, the University was rocked by charges from Black students that Harvard police officers regularly harassed them. The chief launched a campaign to, as he put it, "reach out" to students, but some criticized his approach to the complaints.

"I can give it to my officers," Johnson said of a written policy on harassment proposed by students, "but I can't make them read it." This quickly became the pattern for addressing what became annual complaints of police harassment: talk with students, apologize, but avoid making any policy changes.

This process, however, did not always appear to satisfy the needs of students claiming harassment.

"He was never very animated, like he was just trying to appease me," says Andre L. Williams '89, a Miami attorney, who says he was harassed by Harvard and Cambridge police on a shuttle bus in the spring of 1989. "Johnson was just trying to wash his hands of it."

Police officers say Johnson has taken basically the same approach to handling internal divisions within the department. In November 1985, less than two years after he took office, the Harvard University Police Association, which then represented officers filed suit against the University and issued a vote of "no confidence" against Johnson.

From that point, police and security sources say, relations have deteriorated Some officers have taken to calling their chief "No Waves," suggesting that he cares more about appearances than internal tensions in the unit. So out of touch is the chief, some officers say, that he calls two five year veterans of the force by each other's names.

The complaint has changed little since the no confidence vote in 1985: Johnson doesn't back up his officers and he has consistently failed to resolve labor disputes within the department.

Problems in the Guard Unit

Nowhere has there been more evidence of this trend than in the police department's security guard unit. Over the past year, 11 former and current security employees have publicly claimed department supervisors discriminated against them. Some said the discrimination is based on race.

Although no one has charged that Johnson himself has engaged in discriminatory acts, some employees say he has not been vigilant enough in managing internal relations in the department.

Police and security officials, including Johnson, have denied the charges and suggested that some of the employees were problem workers. The chief said in an interview last spring that because he is Black, he would never tolerate racial discrimination in his department.

The employees say they only went public because department officials, including Johnson, had not taken their internal complaints seriously. The chief says the security employees went public after they lost their grievances on the merits.

"I do not regret one word I have said. Everything I've said is truth and can be proven," says security guard Pierre R. Voss, who is one of the II employees charging discrimination. "I went through the proper channels, I never would have gone to the paper if they had resolved it professionally."

A Search for Leaks

Even more indicative of a breakdown in professional behavior, police and security sources say is the department's attempt to figure out how security unit personnel records were leaked to The Crimson.

Initial suspicions about who leaked the documents centered on security guard Stephen G. McCombe. The late Edward Greene approached McCombe to write up a police report for stolen documents--even though McCombe says he had not reported anything stolen--so that the police could search the Crimson for the documents.

"Greene told me Chief Johnson had cent him. McCombe said in an interview in February. "They might have been trying to put pressure on someone for possession of stolen property."

When asked by The Crimson who directed him to take the report, Greene replied, "no comment."

McCombe did not give Greene a report then, and he refused a similar written request by the chief later.

Shortly after seven of the employees went public last May, a police sergeant allegedly broke into the locker of Sgt. Arthur Fitzhugh, another one of the 11 employees and a former supervisor in the security guard unit.

Fitzhugh says he spoke with both the sergeant and Johnson about the break-in. "[The sergeant] said he needed a locker for a patrolman, and he tried to reach me at home and couldn't," says Fitzhugh. "I've had an [answering] machine since '89...and the patrolman wasn't coming to work for three weeks."

Fitzhugh says Johnson called him and said. "[The sergeant] didn't mean to do that." Fitzhugh says, in general, he is less concerned with the motives for the break-in and more concerned with what he interpreted as the police leadership's approval of the sergeant's tactics.

"[The sergeant] created a serious problem for the department for no reason," Fitzhugh says. The sergeant refused to comment last week.

As revelations about the department's handling of the security controversy continue to mount, rumors run rampant about a major shake-up at the department, perhaps in the security unit. General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall is currently conducting a probe of the alleged discrimination in that unit.

One person who is likely to go may be Johnson, who turns 63 this year. The chief has told associates that he is considering retiring in December, when he completes his 10th year on the job. He is currently being treated for a serious illness, and Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy temporarily assumed his duties late last month. There is no timetable for Johnson's return, and some officers wonder if the chief will come back to a department in turmoil.

Johnson has not returned phone calls to his office or home seeking comment for this story.

A Leader from the Outside?

Whenever a replacement for Johnson is found, it is unlikely to be someone from within the unit. Many police officers and security guards interviewed by The Crimson say none of Harvard's seven lieutenants have the interpersonal skills needed to heal the department.

All seven, they also note, are white males, and the University administration may want a minority head for a department that has so often been accused of racial insensitivity.

"For my own personal reasons, I'd like to see someone like a Hispanic female with a family," says one senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Because we have sexism in the department, among other things, and I'd like to see some of these guys sweat."

So a search is likely to turn to an outside candidate. Ideally, police want someone like Chafin, who was a chief at Amherst College before his time at Harvard and is the chief at Vanderbilt University now: an active, affable leader intent on building morale.

They want, in essence, the kind of leader who will know immediately when one of his own employees is hinting he is a stooge.

"I don't want to make you think that Saul Chafin was a god," says the police official. "But you look at Johnson's 10 years on the job.

"What have you done to make a change? What have you done in sensitivity training? What have you done to get to know your officers?"Crimson File PhotoHarvard Police Chief PAUL E. JOHNSON

In matters of personnel and employee relations, however, the Harvard University Police Department has fallen far.

When Saul L. Chafin left as police chief a decade ago, the department stood at its apex. He had been widely credited for rebuilding morale after the troubled tenure of David L. Gorski, who was criticized for the same conduct Johnson now stands accused of being maccessible, arbitrary in decision-making and unapproachable. Chafin himself was so well-respected--and morale was so high that he received, by one count, five going away parties.

'A Paragon of Professionalism'

Johnson, a Boston police area commander in Roxbury and Mattapan, arrived at Harvard in December 1983. Then General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 said he hired the new chief, who did not have the experience in college police work that Chafin had, because of his reputation as a paragon of professionalism.

The era of good feeling quickly evaporated. Two months after Johnson took over, the University was rocked by charges from Black students that Harvard police officers regularly harassed them. The chief launched a campaign to, as he put it, "reach out" to students, but some criticized his approach to the complaints.

"I can give it to my officers," Johnson said of a written policy on harassment proposed by students, "but I can't make them read it." This quickly became the pattern for addressing what became annual complaints of police harassment: talk with students, apologize, but avoid making any policy changes.

This process, however, did not always appear to satisfy the needs of students claiming harassment.

"He was never very animated, like he was just trying to appease me," says Andre L. Williams '89, a Miami attorney, who says he was harassed by Harvard and Cambridge police on a shuttle bus in the spring of 1989. "Johnson was just trying to wash his hands of it."

Police officers say Johnson has taken basically the same approach to handling internal divisions within the department. In November 1985, less than two years after he took office, the Harvard University Police Association, which then represented officers filed suit against the University and issued a vote of "no confidence" against Johnson.

From that point, police and security sources say, relations have deteriorated Some officers have taken to calling their chief "No Waves," suggesting that he cares more about appearances than internal tensions in the unit. So out of touch is the chief, some officers say, that he calls two five year veterans of the force by each other's names.

The complaint has changed little since the no confidence vote in 1985: Johnson doesn't back up his officers and he has consistently failed to resolve labor disputes within the department.

Problems in the Guard Unit

Nowhere has there been more evidence of this trend than in the police department's security guard unit. Over the past year, 11 former and current security employees have publicly claimed department supervisors discriminated against them. Some said the discrimination is based on race.

Although no one has charged that Johnson himself has engaged in discriminatory acts, some employees say he has not been vigilant enough in managing internal relations in the department.

Police and security officials, including Johnson, have denied the charges and suggested that some of the employees were problem workers. The chief said in an interview last spring that because he is Black, he would never tolerate racial discrimination in his department.

The employees say they only went public because department officials, including Johnson, had not taken their internal complaints seriously. The chief says the security employees went public after they lost their grievances on the merits.

"I do not regret one word I have said. Everything I've said is truth and can be proven," says security guard Pierre R. Voss, who is one of the II employees charging discrimination. "I went through the proper channels, I never would have gone to the paper if they had resolved it professionally."

A Search for Leaks

Even more indicative of a breakdown in professional behavior, police and security sources say is the department's attempt to figure out how security unit personnel records were leaked to The Crimson.

Initial suspicions about who leaked the documents centered on security guard Stephen G. McCombe. The late Edward Greene approached McCombe to write up a police report for stolen documents--even though McCombe says he had not reported anything stolen--so that the police could search the Crimson for the documents.

"Greene told me Chief Johnson had cent him. McCombe said in an interview in February. "They might have been trying to put pressure on someone for possession of stolen property."

When asked by The Crimson who directed him to take the report, Greene replied, "no comment."

McCombe did not give Greene a report then, and he refused a similar written request by the chief later.

Shortly after seven of the employees went public last May, a police sergeant allegedly broke into the locker of Sgt. Arthur Fitzhugh, another one of the 11 employees and a former supervisor in the security guard unit.

Fitzhugh says he spoke with both the sergeant and Johnson about the break-in. "[The sergeant] said he needed a locker for a patrolman, and he tried to reach me at home and couldn't," says Fitzhugh. "I've had an [answering] machine since '89...and the patrolman wasn't coming to work for three weeks."

Fitzhugh says Johnson called him and said. "[The sergeant] didn't mean to do that." Fitzhugh says, in general, he is less concerned with the motives for the break-in and more concerned with what he interpreted as the police leadership's approval of the sergeant's tactics.

"[The sergeant] created a serious problem for the department for no reason," Fitzhugh says. The sergeant refused to comment last week.

As revelations about the department's handling of the security controversy continue to mount, rumors run rampant about a major shake-up at the department, perhaps in the security unit. General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall is currently conducting a probe of the alleged discrimination in that unit.

One person who is likely to go may be Johnson, who turns 63 this year. The chief has told associates that he is considering retiring in December, when he completes his 10th year on the job. He is currently being treated for a serious illness, and Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy temporarily assumed his duties late last month. There is no timetable for Johnson's return, and some officers wonder if the chief will come back to a department in turmoil.

Johnson has not returned phone calls to his office or home seeking comment for this story.

A Leader from the Outside?

Whenever a replacement for Johnson is found, it is unlikely to be someone from within the unit. Many police officers and security guards interviewed by The Crimson say none of Harvard's seven lieutenants have the interpersonal skills needed to heal the department.

All seven, they also note, are white males, and the University administration may want a minority head for a department that has so often been accused of racial insensitivity.

"For my own personal reasons, I'd like to see someone like a Hispanic female with a family," says one senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Because we have sexism in the department, among other things, and I'd like to see some of these guys sweat."

So a search is likely to turn to an outside candidate. Ideally, police want someone like Chafin, who was a chief at Amherst College before his time at Harvard and is the chief at Vanderbilt University now: an active, affable leader intent on building morale.

They want, in essence, the kind of leader who will know immediately when one of his own employees is hinting he is a stooge.

"I don't want to make you think that Saul Chafin was a god," says the police official. "But you look at Johnson's 10 years on the job.

"What have you done to make a change? What have you done in sensitivity training? What have you done to get to know your officers?"Crimson File PhotoHarvard Police Chief PAUL E. JOHNSON