Paul E. Johnson has always been a hard man to know. Even does friends say they are not privy to the simplest details of his private life.

"Paul has always been a little aloof," says the longtime Johnson friend, who believes the chief's hands-off leadership style may have to do with his upbringing. "The people don't know him that well."

Johnson has been a police officer for nearly four decades. He quietly worked his way up through the ranks, gaining promotion in sergeant in the Boston police force in 1975, according to his former collage, Cox.

Johnson was later appointed to the position of deputy superintendent and became commander of Area, B, which includes the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Roxbury and Mattapan.

Those who worked for him at Area B remember Johnson as a competent, quiet manager who instituted few changes in policy and always followed procedure to the letter.

"His main thing would be his demeanor," says Cox. 'He always spoke softly with measured speech, never raised his voice, never threatened or cajoled."

Johnson's major challenge in Boston was dealing with the city's growing drug trade, which became increasingly sophisticated in the late '70s and early '80s.

William "Billy" R. Celester, now the director of police in Newark, N.J., says he worked with Johnson one the only major new effort during the chief's command in Roxbury: forming alliances with the federal government to fight the drug trade.

"We put together coalitions with the federal agencies," says Celester, who was night commander then while Johnson worked days. "It allowed us to go past city and state boundaries."

Celester says there was no politics in Johnson's decision to leave his Boston post in 1983 to become Harvard's chief.

"He just thought it was a good opportunity to be going to Harvard," Celester says.

But Cox and others have different recollections. They say Johnson, a longtime supporter of former Mayor Kevin H. White, had to leave because incoming Mayor Raymond L. Flynn was likely to find Johnson a replacement as deputy superintendent.

"I think it was more political itself," Cox says now of the decision to leave. "With Ray Flynn coming in, I think he saw he was going to be affected by that clean sweep."

Replacing then-Harvard Police Chief Saul L. Chafin, now the police chief at Tennessee's Vanderbilt University, would not have been an easy task for anyone. But for Johnson, it was especially tough. Chafin, according to department employees of the time had a much more open style of manager then Johnson.

Chafin was known for getting in the faces of employees who deviated from his wishes. At the same time, he was an outgoing man who was friendly and approachable, officers says. By one count, Chafin had five going away parties.