HUPD Relations Report Delayed

The committee appointed by University President Drew G. Faust to examine community and police relations at Harvard announced that its report would likely not be ready for release until March, rather than later this month as originally planned.

The delay, which was first reported by The Boston Globe, cited a need to be thorough in listening to students and groups on campus. But several minority student groups said that they have already noticed heightened efforts by University administrators and the Harvard University Police Department to address potential racially sensitive practices on campus.

“Honestly, I’m not too concerned,” said Timothy D. Turner ’09, president of the Black Students Association. “There was actually a meeting last week with members from the UC, the BSA, the BMF, the Association of Black Harvard Women, and we’ve met with HUPD, the provost, and representatives from the group putting the report together.”

Turner said that while he did not attend the meeting himself, other BSA representatives told him that the task force came across as “really wanting to hear more about the interaction that we’ve had with HUPD, and really supportive and willing to listen.”

The task force appointment was prompted by an Aug. 8 incident in which HUPD officers confronted a young black man attempting to remove a lock from a bicycle in a conversation allegedly “laced with obscenities.” The man turned out to be a Boston area high school student working at Harvard for the summer.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano said in an e-mailed statement that HUPD would not “speculate on the process” but his department is looking “forward to any recommendations generated by [the] process that will help ensure the HUPD remains as effective as possible.”

University officials similarly said that they were unconcerned with the delay and that they were confident that the task force would produce substantive recommendations that would help improve police and community relations in the future.

“Over the last few months, the committee has been reaching out broadly to individuals and organizations across the University,” Harvard spokesman John D. Longbrake said in an e-mailed statement. “We understand and support the committee’s decision to afford everyone who wants to be heard an opportunity to share his or her thoughts directly with committee.”

Sangu J. Delle ’10, president of the Black Men’s Forum, said in an e-mail statement that he met with the Task Force last Wednesday and appreciated “the institutional support provided by the University and the commitment of the chair to producing not just a paper report but a working document that can effect change.”

Delle also specifically praised HUPD Sergeant and Community Policing Supervisor Kevin Bryant, who he said has “personally and consistently reached out to the Black community.”

“Sgt. Bryant is a great man who has earned the deepest respect of the BMF and the black community at large, and can be credited with improving relations between HUPD and BMF,” Delle said.

But Anthropology professor J. Lorand Matory ’82 said that there was still much to be examined by the task force. He noted that General Council Robert W. Iuliano ’83—who supervises the police department for the University—is responsible both for fielding complaints about police conduct and for satisfactorily addressing community safety concerns. Matory said he thinks this represents a “conflict-of-interest” and that “the black community on campus and the Association of Black Faculty Administrators and Fellows feel that our efforts to improve police and community relations have been stonewalled.”

Matory said, however, that “a problem of this duration will not be discerned or solved quickly,” and that while he was “not confident that perfect results will emerge, I absolutely applaud [the task force’s approach] and respect the chairs.”

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.