Letter from President Faust re: Policing Efforts
The following is a letter recently sent out from Drew Faust about the improved policing efforts througout Harvard.
-Marissa
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Dear Students,
I write to inform you that the special committee I appointed in August 2008 to consider how best to assure the strongest possible relations between the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) and Harvard’s highly diverse community has now reported its findings to Provost Steven Hyman and Executive Vice President Ed Forst.
I encourage you to read the report, posted at http://www.news.harvard.edu/press/pressdoc/090424_hupd_report.pdf. The independent six-person panel, ably led by attorney Ralph Martin, determined that while the HUPD has enjoyed a well-earned reputation for responsiveness and restraint, work remains to be done by both the HUPD and the broader Harvard community to achieve the shared goal of a welcoming, safe, and open environment. After consulting widely with the Harvard community and investigating both “best practices” in community policing generally and the specific policing policies of two similarly situated peer universities, the committee devised a series of recommendations and principles, both structural and policy-related.
I have asked Provost Hyman and Executive Vice President Forst to review each recommendation in the coming weeks to determine which can and should be implemented. It is my objective to initiate a comprehensive response to this report by the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year.
In the meantime, however, I wish to endorse the general themes that underpin the specific proposals. Policing a university campus situated in an urban area poses unique and complex challenges. In achieving this mission, HUPD officers must constantly balance the need to protect members of the Harvard community with the importance of maintaining an open campus. Only through improved communication between the HUPD and the members of the Harvard community, through mutual respect, and through a willingness to acknowledge and carry out our own individual obligations can we as a University accomplish the goal of creating a campus that is safe and welcoming for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
I also wish to thank all the members of the committee for their dedicated and diligent work. I value this group’s independent insight and believe this report will help guide the University’s efforts to build a more cooperative and complementary relationship between the HUPD and other members of the Harvard community.
Please feel free to share this letter with interested others.
Sincerely,
Drew Gilpin Faust
