Herbert J. Vallier Knows what he's up against.

The Harvard Police Department's new administrator must revamp morale among police officers, stop vicious infighting in the security guard unit and boost the department's sagging finances.

"Am I working a lot of hours? You want to ask my wife about that?" jokes Vallier, a former administrator in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences human resources arm. "I'm working 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. days and I do memo-writing when I get home."

Three months into the job, police officers and security guards say Vallier is making headway.

But he already has rankled some officers, such as Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy--the head of VIP protection and, along with Vallier and Police Chief Paul E. Johnson, one of the department's three power centers. Sources say Vallier stripped Murphy this summer of roughly 5,000 compensation hours--extra hours the lieutenant worked without overtime but for which he could later be compensated--that Murphy had built up over the years.

He also is changing the culture of the guard unit, and some say his biggest break so far may have been the illness of Manager of Operations for Security Robert J. Dowling, who is out on temporary disability.

Sources say Vallier and Dowling sparred over alleged inconsistencies in the operations manager's handling of the security unit.

Guards have accused Dowling for years of favoritism and even racial discrimination in shift assignments, on-the-job treatment and overtime pay, but Dowling has denied the charges and a University-sanctioned investigation last year found them groundless.

Vallier, however, challenged Dowling's management, and even nixed the operations manager's plans to promote three guards to new supervisor positions.

Department sources say hiring new supervisors from among the guards in a deeply divided unit would have created even more turmoil. Vallier says that such a move, in a guard service that has lost money in recent years, doesn't make economic sense.

"We're running a large deficit," he says, "and I couldn't imagine adding on to that deficit."

After Vallier reportedly reprimanded him earlier this summer, several sources said Dowling, who is in his 60s, decided he no longer wanted the job. When his disability benefits were approved, Dowling emptied his office, taking even a treasured fish ornament. He is not expected to return.

Repeated efforts to reach Dowling last week were unsuccessful.

Corporate Sensibility

Vallier, equal parts meticulous and affable, says he's trying to create a "corporate" sensibility for the department. He formed his sense of what is properly corporate and professional during stints in the employee relations department at Shell Oil and as the vice president for human resources for a large health care provider.