Kotowski says he would like to see all officers have the new guns, but he realizes there are many other needs and that department funds are in short supply.

"Different priorities come up, hopefully everyone will wind up carrying the same guns," Murphy says. "It has to do with budgets. We're trying to do as best we can. Everybody likes to have the newer weapons."

There have been other efforts to improve the department's communications operation. In January, the department lost one of its radio channels when it refused to renew its license with the federal government.

The channel is now apparently back on the air, and to aid the officers further, the University recently furnished all of Harvard's officers with new, lighter radios that offer more channels.

Decision-making on these and other issues has been slowed by a lack of leadership in the department, officers charge. Police Chief Paul E. Johnson is being treated for a serious illness and only comes in occasionally. Murphy has stepped in to replace him as the designated officer-in-charge.

"I've taken on all the duties of the chief in his absence. Anything that may come up, I act as his designee," says Murphy. "Whatever comes up day to day, sometimes the chief is here and he handles it. If not, I handle it."

Johnson, 63, has told friends he will retire at the end of this year, and if he does, officers say they won't be sorry to see him go. The chief has widely been described as uncommunicative and out-of-touch--so much so that he mistakenly switches the names of two veteran officers.

Murphy's leadership, however, is even more strongly criticized. Murphy is in charge of providing police protection for major events such as the Head of the Charles, Commencement and visits by dignitaries.

Officers say Murphy is secretive about how he makes arrangements for such events, making him a commodity in the University and thus cementing his leadership position in a department where many officers do not trust him.

Murphy disputes that, saying he is very open with officers about how he arranges events and how he manages the department.

But the acting chief is widely viewed in the department as untrustworthy--a perception heightened by recent reports that he has close financial and personal connections to the bus company he employs for Commencement and reunion activities.

Those revelations, officers say, have so discredited Murphy as to eliminate him from contention to be the next chief. Many officers believe the department's next leader will be from outside the University, and Murphy will likely be relegated to the position of deputy chief--which would be a promotion for the lieutenant.

"I haven't heard that being mentioned," Murphy says of the possibility of promotion. "I'm sure I'm always interested in upward mobility in the police department as well as everyone else."

Many officers are pinning their hopes, for change in the department on the next chief of police.

They are nervous, though, because that choice lies in the hands of Marshall, the general counsel.

Marshall, who has been distant during her first year as the department's supervisor, is viewed with suspicion by many officers. Marshall's predecessor, Daniel Steiner '54, knew them by their first names. Few officers have actually met the current general counsel.

With only slim hopes of internal resolution to the department's problems, police officers may continue to go public. It's an unusual and unnatural pose for police, but many feel going outside the department is the only way to find redress for their grievances.

That means more ads, more department secrets made public. Maybe even another airplane.

"This is real," says Kotowski, talking at once of both the work police do and the public crusade he has undertaken. "It's not a movie, not TV."