HUPD's Freshman Class Tells Its Stories

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) is, much like the University it protects, an elite police force—the department boasts a 1.4 percent applicant-acceptance rate compared to the College’s 9.3 percent this year.

Of the 500 applicants vying for a spot in the department’s freshman class this year, only 100 were offered an interview, and seven were finally selected to attend the rigorous 22-week training program at a police academy in Quincy, Mass.

The seven graduates who were ultimately handed their guns and badges on an early morning in February are the freshest HUPD faces, breaking up late-night parties and tending to the homeless.

And it takes a certain personality to police the Harvard community, which HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano calls the “glass bubble.”

An arresting personality, he says, so that no member of the force should find themselves sitting next to someone boring during their eight-hour shift.



ALL IN THE FAMILY

Six of the seven newbies gathered on a spring afternoon two weeks ago to reflect on the divergent paths each took to become a University officer.

For Angela A. Kerr, one of two women in the group, wearing a black pant suit and an affable smile, becoming a police officer meant accomplishing what her mother had not been able to do years earlier.

Kerr worked with the University before donning the blue uniform. She says she wanted to see more action than the confines of the Holyoke Center could offer her.

Matt M. Ferazzi of Plymouth, Mass., worked as a dispatcher with the department before becoming a full-fledged officer.

His father was a policeman before him, which helped him grow up with a respect and understanding for the profession. He says that he came to understand what good people police officers were through interactions with his father’s colleagues.

“I really enjoyed being here and got along well with the [Harvard] community,” says Ferazzi of his days as a dispatcher.

For James P. Melia, police work is the family business—his father, his uncle, and two of his sisters are members of the force.

“It’s a way to help people without getting bloody,” he says.

Melia, of Hanson, Mass., served in the U.S. Army and worked in a correctional facility in Norfolk, Conn.

He says there was a lot going on at the University and that he enjoys interacting daily with the community of students and faculty.

“HUPD is like family law-enforcement,” he says.



MIRRORING THE COMMUNITY

This family is made up of 19,000 students and 11,900 faculty and staff, across 500 buildings, according to the HUPD website.

The department strives to hire the most qualified candidates while attempting to reflect the Harvard community.

“We always strive to have our department look like the rest of the University,” he says.

Stripped of their uniforms that afternoon, the men were clad in jeans and buttoned-down shirts, looking more like students than officers.

Kerr, an African-American woman from Dorchester, Mass., and Kathleen Cloherty are the two newest female officers.

“It means a lot to have this opportunity,” says Kerr. “I feel good about being able to help other women.”

Jose Chang, who was born in Venezuela and immigrated to the U.S. in 1980, says he found the HUPD job offer by surfing the internet.

A graduate of Emerson College, Chang says, with a chuckle, that he was drawn to the department by its relatively high salary.

Catalano agreed, saying that in addition to the department’s other benefits, the officers “make good money.”

‘NO MATTER WHAT...10 PERCENT ARE BAD’

The department aims to dispel the belief that officers have a poor bedside manner, and many of the newcomers say they seek to rise above this.

Jesse J. Snell of Blackstone, Mass., calls his new job a “noble profession.”

“No matter what you’re doing, 10 percent are bad,” he says about every profession, adding that as a direct reflection of the University, they must be held to a high standard.

Snell is a former member of the U.S. Marines Corps with a degree in criminology from Honolulu University.

“Community policing is the focus of the new generation,” he says. At this, he adds, “HUPD beats them all.”

Brian T. Adamson, of Winthrop, Mass., says Harvard also beats other departments by dint of what it is.

“More so than any other thing, I like interacting with smart people,” says Adamson, a former construction worker and graduate of Stonehill College.

Informal contact with these “smart people” increases the satisfaction of the community, according to Catalano.

Officer Melia says he laments how the sight of a police officer often causes worry, but he says they “work for the community not only for bad things,” but rather, according to Kerr, to create “closeness” in this big city.

“Some people don’t know what to do when I smile at them,” Kerr adds.

And although some may think the University campus is not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity, according to Catalano there is enough action for officers to sink their teeth into.

—Staff writer Noah S. Bloom can be reached at nsbloom@fas.harvard.edu.