New Harvard Police Computer To Analyze Weekly Crime Data

Crime at Harvard will be better documented this year than it has ever been in the past, thanks to a new computer system purchased by the University's Police Department this summer, Acting Chief of Police Jack Morse said yesterday.

The new system, a Durango microcomputer, organizes and breaks down reported crimes, comparing them with previously recorded statistics for a comprehensive analysis. It then prints reports compiled from each week's data, describing types of crimes and their weekly frequencies.

The Department mails these reports to House Masters, College officials, and news organizations throughout campus.

The first such reports were released this week.

In interviews yesterday, masters from several Houses said they pleased with the increased detail provided by the computer system. But most added that the basic information in the new reports differs little from crime blotters that Harvard police have been circulating for years.

The great advantage of the new system is that it is about half as expensive as the previous method, police officials said.

For the last several years, the Department has used a mainframe computer at the Business School to generate similar reports.

"The more specific information is, the better," Mather House Co-Master Patricia A. Herlihy said yesterday.

However, many of the Masters cautioned that such reports, no matter how detailed, cannot replace regular contact with police officers.

"I would be upset if they hid behind this fancy printout and didn't communicate any other way," said Lowell House Master William H. Bossert '59. "But they don't I talk to officers every day," he added.

For the police, the new system, which organizes data into a standardized "Uniform Crime Report," will make reporting procedures consistent with those used by police departments across the country.

"While before we had only one category for assaults, for example, we now have four firearm, knife, other dangerous weapon, and hands, fists, and feet," Morse explained.