Shortly after seven of the employees went public last May, a police sergeant allegedly broke into the locker of Sgt. Arthur Fitzhugh, another one of the 11 employees and a former supervisor in the security guard unit.
Fitzhugh says he spoke with both the sergeant and Johnson about the break-in. "[The sergeant] said he needed a locker for a patrolman, and he tried to reach me at home and couldn't," says Fitzhugh. "I've had an [answering] machine since '89...and the patrolman wasn't coming to work for three weeks."
Fitzhugh says Johnson called him and said. "[The sergeant] didn't mean to do that." Fitzhugh says, in general, he is less concerned with the motives for the break-in and more concerned with what he interpreted as the police leadership's approval of the sergeant's tactics.
"[The sergeant] created a serious problem for the department for no reason," Fitzhugh says. The sergeant refused to comment last week.
As revelations about the department's handling of the security controversy continue to mount, rumors run rampant about a major shake-up at the department, perhaps in the security unit. General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall is currently conducting a probe of the alleged discrimination in that unit.
One person who is likely to go may be Johnson, who turns 63 this year. The chief has told associates that he is considering retiring in December, when he completes his 10th year on the job. He is currently being treated for a serious illness, and Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy temporarily assumed his duties late last month. There is no timetable for Johnson's return, and some officers wonder if the chief will come back to a department in turmoil.
Johnson has not returned phone calls to his office or home seeking comment for this story.
A Leader from the Outside?
Whenever a replacement for Johnson is found, it is unlikely to be someone from within the unit. Many police officers and security guards interviewed by The Crimson say none of Harvard's seven lieutenants have the interpersonal skills needed to heal the department.
All seven, they also note, are white males, and the University administration may want a minority head for a department that has so often been accused of racial insensitivity.
"For my own personal reasons, I'd like to see someone like a Hispanic female with a family," says one senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Because we have sexism in the department, among other things, and I'd like to see some of these guys sweat."
So a search is likely to turn to an outside candidate. Ideally, police want someone like Chafin, who was a chief at Amherst College before his time at Harvard and is the chief at Vanderbilt University now: an active, affable leader intent on building morale.
They want, in essence, the kind of leader who will know immediately when one of his own employees is hinting he is a stooge.
"I don't want to make you think that Saul Chafin was a god," says the police official. "But you look at Johnson's 10 years on the job.
"What have you done to make a change? What have you done in sensitivity training? What have you done to get to know your officers?"