Budding Respect

Unlike his predecessor Paul E. "no waves" Johnson, Harvard University Police Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley has stirred up the surf during his first five years at the helm.

A year and a half after launching a controversial internal restructuring, Riley has taken the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) from a detached, allegedly racially insensitive organization, to one admired by students and administrators.

At the start of his tenure at Harvard, Riley says he knew what he wanted to fix within HUPD.

Johnson, his predecessor, ran a department that didn't relate well with the community and had its share of internal disagreements--once resulting in a fistfight--between staff members.

Riley says the main cause of those problems was poor communication on the part of HUPD.

"One thing I discovered was that there was a lack of knowledge on the part of the community and the police as to the role of the police department in the academic community," says Riley.

And, he says, Harvard is clearly an institution that needs community policing. His objective was to create an environment with officers on foot getting to know students rather than officers in patrol cars aloof from the campus.

After Riley's first six months, administrators felt he had mended many of HUPD's wounds.

Riley's successes at Harvard follow a distinguished career in the state police.

He joined the force as a patrol officer in 1971, worked in Research and Development and at Logan Airport and rose through the ranks of corporal and sergeant to become commander of the division of Investigations and Intelligence.

He won friends and admirers among his colleagues, and was elected president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts by 1400 colleagues, for whom he negotiated a labor contract.

"Bud was a well-respected and competent officer, and handled crisis well on a daily basis," says state police spokesperson Robert Bird.

While on the state police force, Riley studied at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and during that time became familiar with the campus police system and got to know students and officers.

When the position of chief opened up, Riley says he saw HUPD as the only University police force he would want to work in. And after several rounds of interviews, he got the job in November 1995.

During his first semester as chief, administrators gushed about Riley's performance and praised his genuine love of the Harvard community.

In the spring of 1996, then-General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall, who led the search team, said Riley had met every expectation the University had.

"The attributes we were looking for were first, professional excellence and quality credentials; second, somebody who could lead the department into the next century; and third, and somebody who had superior judgment," she said. "On all three levels, Chief Riley has done extraordinarily well."

In the fall of 1996 Riley faced what he describes as his toughest challenge in all of his tenure at Harvard--an officer was accused of racism in an encounter with a student.

Though Riley had set up a training program to deal with racial and ethnic sensitivity issues, the vestiges of past problems were still there. And though Riley was able to successfully negotiate the incident, it was one he will not soon forget.

"A better relationship has developed now between the students, faculty and police officers," Riley says of his progress. "There is a difference of night and day--a mutual respect has developed between students and officers."

After Riley had settled into his new position, he decided to focus his energies on an internal restructuring of HUPD, and as a first step fired the department's seven highest-ranking lieutenants.

The restructuring came in the wake of a report by KSG research fellow George L. Kelling that accused Riley of being out of touch with his fellow officers and the department of being in a state of confusion.

The report described a struggle for control between Riley and the lieutenants in HUPD.

In response to the report, Riley hired new officers with the blessing of General Counsel Anne Taylor, and HUPD began to create a new image for itself on campus.

After sitting on the undergraduate admissions committee himself, Riley now brings Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis to speak to officers about the kind of students that come to Harvard and their backgrounds.

Rather than buying into stereotypes of the typical Harvard student, Riley says officers are "really proud" of the community they serve.

And the result of that attitude has been increased communication between HUPD officers and student organizations like the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM).

In contrast to the protests of 1969, when officers beat and clubbed students, officers and student activists now know each other by name and say that protests occur without creating undue disturbance.

"I think the police have been great," Amy C. Offner '01, a member of PSLM, told The Crimson last spring. "They have consistently been very fair and very professional in their treatment toward us."

Taylor is enthusiastic about Riley's ability to please both students and administrators. Taylor says there was a time she wished she wasn't in charge of HUPD, but now she "wouldn't give it up for the world."

"Bud is wonderful. He's perfect for this environment, which is surprising coming from a career in the state police," Taylor says. "He is very good at relationship building, which is something you have to understand at Harvard."

And his officers hold him in similar esteem, even though his tenure has brought a tough bout of change for many of them.

"Everyone likes Bud," says HUPD officer James Sullivan. "Some things have been controversial, and not everyone likes everything he's done, but he's very, very popular for the respect he's brought the department."

Sullivan says that before Riley took control of the HUPD, there was little change where change needed to occur.

"He's really taken the bull by the horns," Sullivan says. "And now the system's much better."

HUPD officer Louis Favreau, who praises Riley's idea of letting officers eat with students in dining halls, says that though it has taken some time to iron out the kinks, Riley has made the HUPD a better place.

"When Chief Riley gets all the pieces in place, the University will be proud of the police force," Favreau says. "He wants them to know us. It's taken a while to get everything running, but it's going great now."