Community BRIEF

The Harvard Police Department received a letter of commendation this week from Brookline's police chief for the University's role in the December 22 arrest of a man charged with a series of sexual assaults in the Boston area.

A University officer responding to a report of a sexual assault and battery near the Harvard Medical area issued a call over a city-wide radio channel that resulted in the arrest of the suspect by the Brookline police.

"The broadcast resulted in the subject being spotted and apprehended, thereby ending a series of sexual assaults that this subject was committing," Brookline Chief Howard A. Brackett wrote in a Jan. 4 letter to Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson. "I would like to personally commend the Harvard officers involved in the incident."

The suspect, identified by police as 34-year-old Kenneth V. Osbourne of Plymouth, was wanted by authorities in connection with a series of flashings, indecent assaults and other sexual crimes.