Police Chief Search Nearing End

The search for the next Harvard police chief is ongoing and interviews with potential candidates may be completed by the end of this month, according to Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall.

Members of the advisory committee that will choose the next chief selected a large number of applicants to be interviewed by different panels of members of the Harvard community.

Marshall wouldn't give an exact number of candidates, but she did say that "it's many, many dozens."

The candidates met with the panels during the summer and continue to meet with them now.

"One panel is a law enforcement panel and we had the participation of the chief of police in Cambridge, the commissioner of Cambridge and other law enforcement experts who could question candidates about professional matters," Marshall said. "Candidates met with several panels comprised of faculty members, students and administrators and responded to their questions."

"It is my expectation, although a guarded expectation, that the [interviews] will be completed within the next month," Marshall said.

"When those interviews with panel members are complete, my expectation is that we will have a select group of candidates meet with some parts of the community or some members of the community who deal most frequently with the chief of police," she said.

Marshall said that the advisory committee was looking for specific qualities in a new police chief.

"We are looking for a candidate who has exhibited good leadership, who has a reputation for excellent judgment and who is a good manager," she said.

When asked whether concern for race relations on campus was a quality of particular concern to the advisory committee, Marshall replied, "I believe that sensitivity to issues that arise in a very diverse community [are reflected] in all of those three broad categories."

Harvard Police Lts. Lawrence J. Murphy and John F. Rooney both declined to comment on whether they had applied for the top job.

Other candidates who have been mentioned for the job include Calvin J. Kantor, the head of the University security guard unit; Christine Wellington, a former Northeastern campus police sergeant and Saul L. Chafin, Harvard's police chief from 1978 to 1983.

Current police chief Paul E. Johnson will remain as chief until a successor is named, Marshall said.

She declined, however, to predict when a new chief will be chosen because "for an appointment which touches all parts of the campus as this one does, I would prefer to not feel or not have the community feel it is operating under a specific deadline."