Consultant Readies Report On Police Force

The special consultant hired to evaluate the University police department said yesterday he expects to report to the administration in a few days on the morale problem now facing the Harvard force.

John T. Howland, director of the Institute for Public Service, said he and a team of consultants have completed their "total management audit" of the force, which they will probably submit to Joe B. Wyatt, vice president for administration, "in a matter of days."

The report, which the group began working on last June at the request of University officials, will recommend means to increase efficiency by improving the morale of the members of the force, Howland said.

"You can't improve service to any great degree unless you increase morale--if you have a morale problem to begin with," he added.

Harvard hired Howland's firm in the wake of complaints by the Harvard Police Association that efforts to reorganize the force had greatly lowered the officers' morale. The union refused to bargain for a new contract until the University took steps to solve what it called "the morale question."

Howland said he has talked with union members as well as administrators in the course of the study, but would not mention any specific proposals contained in the report.

Wyatt said yesterday he has not seen a first draft of Howland's report, adding' that he had not expected to receive the final study until the end of the month.