Harvard Is Looking for a New Police Chief, Again. Here’s What to Know.

The Harvard University Police Department has launched a search for a new chief of police, in the fractured department’s latest effort to move beyond yearslong internal turmoil and frequent turnover at the top.

The move, first announced through a job posting uploaded in June, comes just months after HUPD’s previous chief, Victor A. Clay, resigned abruptly in early May amid allegations of a toxic workplace and legal threats against the department.

Harvard has partnered with Spelman Johnson, a third-party executive search firm, to guide the search. A job posting on the firm’s website notes that the “review of applications will begin immediately, and continue until the position is filled,” and remained available as of Sunday night.

Spelman Johnson, which is headquartered in Easthampton, Mass., was similarly tapped to help manage HUPD’s previous search for a new chief — a process which led to the department hiring Clay in 2021.

A spokesperson for Spelman Johnson did not respond to a request for comment. Jason A. Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, wrote in an email that the search process is “ongoing” and that more information will be publicly released “at an appropriate time.”

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the search.

Spelman Johnson, which specializes in higher education and nonprofit hiring, primarily serves to recruit and screen initial applicants. But search firms often only sift through outside applicants, and do not identify internal candidates who may be up for promotion.

Denis G. Downing, who served as Clay’s second-in-command, was named as interim chief hours after Clay resigned, reprising a role he stepped into four years ago after former chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley retired in the wake of scandal.

Donald C. Hambrick, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies strategic management, said the search firm’s job posting often explicitly references weak points from past leadership.

“Say, in this case, the police department at Harvard has recently experienced a severe shortcoming of a specific type,” Hambrick said. “Then, of course, the job description gets skewed to describe somebody who can deal with exactly that problem.”

The Spelman Johnson page for the position list dozens of bullet points detailing necessary qualifications, experiences, and responsibilities — including an expectation for the new chief to “effectively engage with the patrolman’s union and work to foster a mutually respectful working relationship.”

The Harvard University Police Association, the union representing HUPD officers, delivered a sharp condemnation of Clay’s leadership weeks before his resignation in a near unanimous vote.

Harvard has remained tight-lipped about the progress of the search so far, though it remains in the early stages. Judith A. Wilde, a George Mason University professor who has studied transparency in executive hiring, emphasized the need for later stages of the hiring process to be public.

“In the early stages of the search I don’t see any problems with having the search firm do some due diligence, keep everything secret,” Wilde said.

“But as you start winnowing down and coming down to even what might be called ‘semi-finalists,’ then I think more information needs to come out in order for people to really feel comfortable,” she added.

Harvard established a 16-member search committee in 2020, which resulted in Clay’s appointment to the role. The committee members, which included students and faculty across the University, were named in the Harvard Gazette — a University-run publication — in August 2020. The University has yet to announce a similar committee for the ongoing search.

HUPD has not given an expected timeline for the search, though it is not uncommon for executive searches to take several months. Clay was hired after an eight-month search in 2021, and his predecessor Francis D. “Bud” Riley was hired after a 10-month search in 1996.

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.