Police: Chafin' at the Bit

Officer Dan MacGilvray sat in his cruiser on the corner of DeWolf and Mem Drive on a cold March morning. An hysterical motorist jumped out of his Pontiac screaming that a car had just veered off Mem Drive into the Charles River. Within minutes, Sgt. Peter A. O'Hare and Officer Thomas Simas were groping about the turbid ice water for the submerged car door. They dragged one of the two women from the river and collapsed from overexposure. A month later they were to be commended for saving one woman's life. Not every day in the life of a University policeman is that memorable, but the fast response was a sign of a new and professional force--one that has created tension between the police and the Harvard administration.

Three years ago the University police took their anger and frustration over changes in the department to the bargaining table. After 13 long months, they extracted some firm promises from the University's negotiating team. The union's demands went far beyond the purview of most bargaining sessions. The police then focussed not on the perennial demand for cost of living increases and better benefits, but on the methods used to transform the department from a familial friendly cop outfit to a professional crime fighting organization.

The Harvard Police Association, representing the 43 uniformed officers, successfully used the all-time low police morale as a major bargaining chip in their prolonged contract talks. This year promises to be different; the changes once viewed as the machinations of one police chief are now firmly embeded institutional realities, morale is better, a new police chief has ushered in many of the extralegal union demands made three years ago. And with a full-fledged recession in gear and spiraling inflation, this is simply not a good year for extracting more than 7 per cent wage hikes and better benefits.

Not that the police are happy with Harvard. The age-old gripes persist, but they are mostly issues that confront all the 1000 or so unionized Harvard employees, and they are hardly ever solved at the bargaining table. The police union has yet to meet to discuss the demands they will present Harvard when their contract expires December 31, but job security will undoubtedly be one of their major bargaining points. In the last nine years the number of uniformed policemen has declined from 60 to 41 as the force has taken on a more administrative and computer-oriented style.

Lawrence F. Letteri, president of the union, argued the last time around that more money should be spent on beat patrolmen and less on new technology. The arguments this time won't be that different. Though Letteri acknowledges that morale among the officers has definitely improved, he says he would like to see ten more patrolmen hired to take some of the increasing workload off the existing force and to help fight the growing crime rate.

Three years ago, the union had reason for concern. Former police chief David L. Gorski put a freeze on hiring for the three years he was at Harvard, an action the union interpreted as an administration attempt to reduce the size of the police force through attrition. Though the threat of a reduction in the size of uniformed police officers still remains, the administration has taken steps to instill confidence in the force.

Gorski resigned under pressure form the dissatisfied police; after a one year search the administration hired Saul L. Chafin betting that a change in the leadership would make the changes in the department more palatable. The odds seem to have played in its favor. Though Chafin has made questionable decisions in firing three men since he became number one, he has also taken pains to replace them so as to avoid any charges of intentional reductions in the force.

Nonetheless, the issue of job security continues to preoccupy the police. While the number of uniformed policemen remains at 41, the administration continues to hire more watchmen and student security guards, who the police contend are taking over their duties and reducing potential officer hirings.

The issue is even more complex for the union, which sees its base steadily eroding. Neither watchman nor security guards are members of the union. At the same time, the union demand for more equitable promotions within the department has backfired, weakening its position still further. Before the last contract negotiations, the police charged that the few times Gorski promoted officers he chose them arbitrarily. The union contended that the lack of equity, internal communication and job security had severely damaged police morale, and demanded that the University correct the situation before it renegotiated a contract.

The University hired a police management specialist to investigate the problem. John T. Howland, executive director of the Institute of Public Service Management, concluded in his report of the University police that the union correctly cited some of the reasons for low morale and recommended that the police take steps to correct the situation, including establishing a better promotion system, increasing internal communication, and providing greater access to job advancement and training programs.

Chafin has taken up many of the Howland report recommendations in the last year. He has encouraged job advancement through a new open competitive process involving a written and oral test. One sergeant has already been promoted and Chafin intends to fill that vacancy this November. In addition, he has sent officers and supervisors to training schools in the metropolitan area for instruction in fingerprinting, criminal investigation, supervisory skills and arson--a move he claims has helped to increase the officer's sense of job security. The union now regrets its push for promotions since sergeants and lieutenants are salaried, rather than hourly employees. "I wish the department would put a freeze on promotions to enable the union to be more stable," Letteri says.

But the union is happy with the department's decision to eliminate the biannual physical stress test, which the police felt increased insecurity over their jobs (if an officer didn't pass the test he was removed from the force). "I think it did something for the morale of the police department and the morale of the people in the health services," Chafin says. Responding to union complaints of three years ago, the department has also improved the quality of the equipment officers use. Chafin claims the new emergency equipment and a new fleet of police cruisers with alley lights and better radios, have bettered the police image and, consequently, morale.

Other changes have also helped to take the bite out of union demands. Chafin has improved internal communication through a new organizational structure and monthly plenary staff meetings. Though the chain of command structure still remains in place, complaints do, on the whole, manage to filter to the top. For example, late May, a group of women within the department complained that they were not being treated professionally by the overwhelmingly male force. Chafin says he held a meeting with a core group of the staff to correct the situation immediately because, he says, "I thought it was an extremely serious issue."

Despite what Chafin calls his "incremental changes," the police still suffer from the radical changes ushered in by Gorski. Many of the officers are understandably wary about the shift to the more professional image, and nostalgically refer to the days when they could fight crime without relying on computer printouts. Their persistent dissatisfaction with the new system--responding to crime determined by problem areas the computer identifies--stems from errors in the data feeding process. When a robbery that occurred at Winthrop House at 2 a.m. wasn't reported to the police until 5 p.m. the next day, the computer would read that the crime happened when it was reported, rather than when it occurred.

Chafin says that as of last July, the computer indexing of crimes has been corrected and the difference should help to legitimize the computer system. "Time moves on and we have to be progressive. With the volume of work there's no way in hell that we can handle the work load manually," Chafin says.

The new professionalism is unquestionably here to stay, and with the department's efforts to implement the Howland report recommendations, the union is left to concentrate on higher wages and better benefits in the upcoming contract negotiations. Despite the police budget of over $2 million, the administration will undoubtedly consider a wage hike that even approximates the rate of inflation unthinkable. As Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel for the University, says, "We're all in a tough position. Inflation is hitting all of us and our resources are just not increasing."