Kotowski calls this phenomenon a "revolving door" and says it is "one of the biggest issues" facing the department. He says it is perhaps the biggest tangible example of department mismanagement.

"The money walks out the door, some work two or three years and then leave--because of the substandard pay," says Kotowski. "It's definitely mismanagement."

Murphy denies charges of mismanagement, but says that if officers continue to leave at their present rate, the University should examine what is going on at the police department.

"They sought better employment conditions and better job opportunities else-where," Murphy said. "One went to a town [police force], one to Massachusetts State Police, one went to city of Boston. I would have to say salary could play a vital part in that."

Kotowski says the officers left because Harvard "pays substandard rates. If there's any group of employees in the University that should maintain diversity, it should be the police department."

But Murphy also said that losing those officers will not limit the department's ability to relate to and work with a diverse student body. "It doesn't limit our understanding," he said.

Yet any kind of corrective action to stem the revolving door phenomenon would have to be a "collective decision," he said. "Human resources, the chief would have input. With the continuing trends the way they are it might be a very important issue."

But problems in the police department go deeper than personnel issues. The facilities at 29 Garden St. themselves are a sore point among officers.

A Crimson investigation of working conditions at the department revealed that longstanding maintenance problems, which the University has allowed to go uncorrected, have hurt the working conditions of employees.

A University-commissioned inspection of the department's building found asbestos-containing materials throughout the building, including floor tiles and pipes in many locations, like locker rooms, frequented by officers.

Asbestos was removed from the police station at the same time officers and others worked in the building. Officers have said they were never told about the widespread presence of the suspected carcinogen at 29 Garden St.

And while repairs to the facility seem to be progressing slowly, necessary changes in the equipment used by officers remain incomplete.

Harvard police officers, for example, say they need better guns to respond to more dangerous situations involving better-equipped criminals.

On Commencement day, for example, Officer Robert Cooper took a nine millimeter semiautomatic Glock pistol and two fully loaded magazines from a man outside the Au Bon Pain restaurant in Harvard Square. And last month, Detective Richard Mederos was involved in a high-speed chase and shootout with a New York man wanted for murder near the Medical School.

As a result, about a third of Harvard's officers, in most cases the newer members of the department, are now carrying the nine millimeter semiautomatic handguns, instead of the traditional six-shot .38 caliber police specials.