"We think of ourselves as public relations men, not policemen," Tonis emphasizes while talking to the prospective patrolman. There are no formal requirements to be a Harvard policeman and there is no special training program. The men simply have to be of Tonis' liking and seem willing to view their role as helping the students instead of legalistically enforcing the law. To date, Harvard police have never arrested anyone affiliated with the University.

There is no special firearms program. Staff officers simply accompany the new recruits to the University rifle range and teach the men how to use a pistol.

They shoot 20 rounds at a silhouette and give the target to Tonis, who scrutinizies the results and decides whether they qualify. They keep shooting until they get Tonis' approval, but this is all a little superfluous when you realize that Harvard police have only fired their guns on two occasions in the last 20 years.

Even this modest program, though, is a vast improvement over the pre-Tonis conditions. When Tonis took over the police, the men were carrying a variety of outdated pistols. In his first month, Tonis tried firing one pistol, but it jammed and he had to remove the clogged bullet from the gun with his pocket jackknife.

During the past eight and one-half years, Tonis has modernized the force and professionalized it within clearly defined limits. But Tonis said he would consider it a personal failure if he ever has to order a batch of riot gear for his men, as some university police forces have done.

A SERGEANT expressed the prevailing attitude on the force: "This is the main thing. You've got to like people. You can't use words to somebody you wouldn't want to be used to you." A patrolman seconded his appraisal, "If you can't get along and communicate with the kids, it's no job. If a boy goes to this college, there must have been some screening and he must be a pretty nice kid."

There seems to be a difference in attitude between the men working under Tonis for at least five years or so, and some of the younger recruits. One veteran sergeant said, "All the young guys, if they want to be policemen, they'd better try the regular police."

"Here, you've really got to be a little more tactful," he added. "Some young guys won't last. Some new guys figure that [being courteous] is wiping somebody's fanny."

One "new blood" patrolman suggested that the department buy riot equipment, establish a tactical squad and create an intelligence division-ideas which Tonis abhors. The patrolman also suggested bolstering the force from 73 to 100 men.

"It's just a matter of participating," he said. "Everything that happens, we call Cambridge. Cambridge has enough problems of its own." A few months ago the patrolman got his riot gear, his tactical squad and intelligence support-through his new job with the Cambridge police.

Tonis predicts that if gung-ho recruits do not mellow, they will not last long on the Harvard police.

The two major problems with which the Harvard police contend are assaults on woman students and thefts in the Houses. This semester, at least two rapes have been reported. In response, the Harvard police have established an extra detail for Radcliffe's Currier House and have gotten the Cambridge police to deploy an extra 5 to 15 men in the general Radcliffe area.

"Radcliffe couldn't have any more protection than it has right now from the Cambridge police; the place is swarming with them," said Sergeant John Miller, one of the three Harvard beat patrolmen there.

A few weeks ago, under the interrogation of Harvard Lt. Thompson, a trespasser caught in Lowell House named members of a suspected ring of thieves. Boston and Cambridge police proceeded to make the appropriate arrests and have already recovered thousands of dollars worth of property stolen from Harvard Houses.

A sergeant in a marked Harvard police cruiser and two patrolmen are always stationed at Radcliffe, whose security the Harvard police took over in 1965. Another sergeant drives a marked cruiser in the Harvard area, and is responsible for five patrolmen, except from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., the peak period, when he is responsible for seven men.