And cruiser patrols also limit the ability of officers to police areas not otherwise accessible by a car, such as Radcliffe Yard.

According to Riley's new plan, the campus will be covered by three community policing teams.

Each team will be responsible for one of three areas: the Yard (including the Science Center and Memorial Hall), the River houses and the Quad.

The teams will be headed by one of three HUPD sergeants who will each supervise three officers and the security guards in the area.

The restructuring will lead to a "team approach" among the cops, Riley says, that will facilitate their crime stopping.

Each officer will also be assigned responsibility for patrolling a cluster of houses or buildings within a given unit.

"[The new plan] gives a sense of responsibility to the teams," he says. "It also gives them the sense that they're responsible for coming up with creative solutions for solving problems [within their units]."

And if an incident occurs in a unit while officers responsible for the area are not nearby, reports will eventually be funneled back to them in order to improve their knowledge of crime in their district.

As part of Riley's initiative, he worked with House masters and Harvard Dining Services officials to allow officers to eat in each of the houses.

Riley says HUPD cops are assigned to meals in houses on a rotating basis in order to enhance officer visibility and their interaction with students.

If all goes as Riley hopes, the new plan will increase familiarity between the students and HUPD officers, making the students more likely to approach the officers with problems.

"We're trying to make it as user-friendly as possible to the students," Riley says.

Riley says he plans to introduce the community police officers to the house masters in a meeting at the end of this month.

He adds that in the coming months he will introduce crime prevention programs in each of the houses that will be run by HUPD sergeants.

Sgts. Robert Cooper, Robert Kotowski and James L. McCarthy will run the safety awareness program as well as programs on self-defense and bike theft in the houses.