Undergraduate Robbed Outside Barker Center

At 12:00 a.m. Sunday morning, the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) responded to a distress call from an undergraduate reporting an assault outside the Barker Center.

The alleged crime occurred at the same time that first-year Union dormitory residents were returning home from the annual president's dance in Annenberg Hall.

The victim told HUPD he was robbed by two unarmed black males, describing one of the attackers as 5 feet 11 inches tall, in his 20s and dressed in a "stocky, dry jacket."

The alleged attackers fled on foot down Quincy Street, according to the dispatcher's remarks in the HUPD computer system.

The incident does not appear in the HUPD blotter, the department's official public log. Mass. state law requires police departments to maintain a log listing all complaints they receive and crimes reported to them.

According to University spokesperson Alex Huppe, the midnight call was inadvertently missing from the day's open records. Huppe said Sunday's log--a printout of information from HUPD's computer system--only includes police action recorded between "00:01" and "24:00."

HUPD did not place a withhold tag on the incident report--which would have rendered it confidential--since the assault was not of a particularly sensitive nature, Lt. Peter A. O'Hare said yesterday.

Huppe said the blotter omission was the result of a "computer glitch."

Due to a "programming error," Huppe said the HUPD computer system cannot print out incidents entered at exactly "00:00." Therefore, the Barker Center phone call, received "in those 60 seconds," fails to appear in the blotter, Huppe said.

But Sergeant James L. McCarthy Jr. said the missing entry may have been the result of human error.

McCarthy suggested the possibility that officers must manually enter the starting and ending times for each log printout.

HUPD's blotter includes some daily printouts that begin reporting incidents at "00:00."

Huppe and McCarthy said last night that they remain "unsure" as to whether the omission was due to human error--failing to include the first minute of Sunday morning in the printout--or a "computer glitch."

HUPD expects to release a community advisory regarding the attack today, according to Huppe.

"It is in the best interest of Harvard to report crimes," Huppe said.

"There's a constant fight againstcomplacency...We want to make all aware ofproblems that threaten the safety of Harvardstudents and faculty," he added.

Although Huppe called the omission "a veryanomalous thing," HUPD has admitted to blotterblunders before.

HUPD Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley announcedearly last month that his department had revampedits open log system.

Riley also placed Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy incharge of supervising the records in the wake ofomissions.

HUPD failed to report the Jan. 31 arrest ofJoshua M. Elster '00, charged with the rape of aHarvard student.

The department also failed to report the Aug. 1arrest of Sung Hoon Cho in its public log on theInternet, although the arrest was reported inHUPD's official log. HUPD has since removed theunofficial log from its Web site.

Last night, Huppe said HUPD will "get to thebottom" of the most recent blotter omissions

"There's a constant fight againstcomplacency...We want to make all aware ofproblems that threaten the safety of Harvardstudents and faculty," he added.

Although Huppe called the omission "a veryanomalous thing," HUPD has admitted to blotterblunders before.

HUPD Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley announcedearly last month that his department had revampedits open log system.

Riley also placed Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy incharge of supervising the records in the wake ofomissions.

HUPD failed to report the Jan. 31 arrest ofJoshua M. Elster '00, charged with the rape of aHarvard student.

The department also failed to report the Aug. 1arrest of Sung Hoon Cho in its public log on theInternet, although the arrest was reported inHUPD's official log. HUPD has since removed theunofficial log from its Web site.

Last night, Huppe said HUPD will "get to thebottom" of the most recent blotter omissions