Harvard to scrutinize campus police after complaints from black students, professors

August 26, 2008 04:59 PM
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
Harvard will launch an examination of the campus police department after complaints that officers have unfairly stopped black students, professors, and other university community members because of their race.In an email to senior university administrators and faculty today, President Drew Gilpin Faust announced the creation of a six-member committee to review the police department's diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts. It will be led by Ralph Martin, former Suffolk County district attorney and managing partner of the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen.
"All of us share an interest in sustaining constructive relations between our campus police and the broader Harvard community, in order to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all faculty, students, staff, and visitors...." Faust wrote in her email. "I am confident that this group's efforts will help the University address this important set of issues in a constructive spirit and forthright manner."

Earlier this month, Faust noted, officers confronted a person using tools to remove a lock from a locked bicycle. The person, whom others familiar with the case have identified as a black Boston high school student working on the Harvard campus this summer, owned the bicycle, and was trying to cut the lock because the key had broken off in the lock.
Black students and faculty also protested after police interrupted a field day on the Radcliffe Quad in spring 2007 sponsored by the Harvard Black Men's Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women. Police asked whether the black student groups had permission to be there.
And in 2004, police stopped a prominent black Harvard professor as he was walking to his office across Harvard Yard because they mistook him for a robbery suspect.

Harvard to scrutinize campus police after complaints from black students, professors - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe