Harvard Police Announce Plans for House, Yard `Liaisons'

In effort to buff up its tarnished campus image, the University police department will appoint several staff liaisons to discuss campus security with students this semester.

While short on the specifics of the plan Harvard police Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy says officers will periodically visit students in the Houses and the Yard beginning early this month. Liaisons will educate students about security measures, inform them about happenings on campus and provide a familiar link to the campus police force, according to Murphy.

"The police department will interface with students through the proctors in the Yard and tutors in the Houses," Murphy said.

For years Harvard students and faculty have called on the department to establish a community policing program like the proposed police liaisons. Such a program would help address students' concerns about police sensitivity and allow students to establish a more personal relationship with officers.

The idea of having police liaisons drew strong support several years back, when charges of racial discrimination leveled against HUPD led to widespread clamoring for police reforms.

Having police liaisons was one of the measures proposed as a way to alleviate tensions between the police department and the student community.

One student, Inati Ntshanga '95, charged police last spring with racial harassment in a December, 1992 arrest. Ntshanga, who is Black, was arrested for trespassing in the basement of Matthews Hall when he was working for Harvard Student Agencies--his key was named the burglary tool.

Charges against Ntshanga were later dropped, but under state law, the arrest will remain on his permanent record.

Murphy said the meetings between students, liaisons, tutors and proctors will occur at times "compatible with everybody."

While Harvard's police department has in the past promised the advent of similar programs, it appears that Harvard's chief of police is now taking action.

Early last month, Chief Paul E. Johnson put forth six initiatives to improve policing before the Committee for College Life. The proposals include extending guard hours, providing police blotter information for house newsletters and stepping up foot-patrols around campus. Committee members said his overtures were warmly received.

Even so, many of the initiatives are not expected to be implemented--if they are implemented at all--until mid-1996, Johnson said last month. And the likelihood of success of the initiatives is further clouded by the fact that it has been widely rumored that Johnson will retire before 1996.

But the liaisons should begin their duties early this semester, Murphy said, as soon as HUPD hammers out details with Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III and the Committee on College Life. The administration and the police department have yet to determine the number of liaisons employed in the program.

Liaisons will be chosen out of volunteers from the HUPD's lieutenants and sergeants, though patrol officers may participate as well, Murphy said. He added that the liaisons' duties will be "added into their regular daily activity," and thus may reduce their time patrolling campus.

Some members of the staff have already volunteered. "There have been people that have shown an interest," Murphy said, declining to provide names or elaborate on the exact number.

Officials at the police department have already met with the Committee for College Life and with members of Harvard's Undergraduate Council to discuss the plan.

"The entire police department has expressed the same concerns that students have expressed [about security on campus] and [is] looking for ways to increase the security here," said Undergraduate Council representative Elizabeth A. Haynes '98.

Although no official details about the liaisons have reached proctors or tutors yet, some applauded the spirit of the HUPD proposal.

"I certainly think the efforts on the part of the police to be in more touch with student concerns and be more accessible is a wise idea," Adams House Senior Tutor Michael J. Prokopow said.

Some proctors and tutors felt that liaisons might be able to put students more at ease in their relations with police officers.

"I think some students have an adversarial role with police," Stoughton Hall proctor David M. Lange '94 said.

"Having worked with Safety Walk when I was an undergraduate, I think the police department is very interested in students and helping students in every way they can," he said.

Brett R. Conner '96, co-chair of the Dunster House committee, said that bad impressions of police officers exist because students have little contact with officers. And when they do interact with Harvard's police, it is usually only for routine matters like lock-outs, he said.

"A lot of the images of the police are of people who take half an hour to get you into your room, which sort of skews people's perceptions of the police," Conner said.

Dunster House Senior Tutor Suzi Naiburg said she feels that students often see police officers as "authority figures," rather than community servants. Having liaisons "gives [police officers] an opportunity to play other roles and to be a resource for the students," she said.

In addition, getting to know students better will help police officers deal with situations on campus, Naiburg said, such as the occasional out-of-control party. "It's far easier to discipline students you know then to come in as a total stranger," she said.

Yet others are concerned that meetings with liaisons will not be effective and will take up too much of time.

"I think student undergraduate life is busy enough as it is, especially in freshman year, and I don't think they need to be educated in a conditioned manner about security," Holworthy Hall proctor Bruce S. Miller '90 said.

Proctors talk to students at the beginning of fall registration about security on campus and in the city, Miller said. He added that students are given an "abundance" of literature about security. Most notably, each registered student receives the "Playing It Safe" booklet which describes Harvard campus security in detail.

"I've felt that that has been a sufficient vehicle to get the point across to students, and I've never felt personally in my dorm that we needed more," Miller said of the literature.

Hollis Hall proctor Wendy M. Pizarro agrees that there can be too much education on security. "You want to strike a fine balance between promoting personal safety and also enjoying the people who live here in Cambridge, and not being too paranoid about one another," she said.

"We have a proctor meeting [about security measures]--I think that's enough," said one first-year resident of Holworthy who declined to give his name. "I think it wastes too much time."

Even so, the first-year student said he felt the need for increased sensitivity among police officers: "I went to the Quad and I got lost and asked the police for directions, and they didn't seem helpful."

Mather House Senior Tutor Mary K. Peckham said she has been approached by students who have had complaints about police responsiveness--on incidents more serious than just lock-outs.

"I know some students in Mather who have had some concerns about some of their contact with the police," Peckham said, "and I know the police are concerned about students taking security issues seriously. So I'm sure in the right forum there could be a lot to discuss."

Despite the department's obvious attempt to improve police relations, some students say they are still concerned about racial issues.

George C. Fatheree '97 says that he is unconvinced that liaisons will make much of a difference in resolving what he and other Black students say is one of Harvard's biggest problems with racial discrimination. Black students are singled out by police officers and constantly asked for identification, he says.

"If having liaisons is going to facilitate the Harvard Police in treating students the same, regardless of their color, yes, it's a right direction," he said. "But I'm not sure that that result will come from those means."

Fatheree doesn't blame the police for all the occasions that they stop Black students. "A lot of times, when police respond to complaints, it's complaints [that] students make when they think they're in danger, just because [other students] are Black," he said. "The police have to do their job, which is to respond."

The police stopped Fatheree for identification on two separate occasions last year, he said. So far this year, he hasn't been stopped.

Fatheree says he is not overly optimistic about the chances of liaisons improving relations between Harvard's Black students and the police.

"The only thing is that is going to solve the problem, as far as Blacks are concerned, is treating Black and white students the same," Fatheree said.