McCarthy hopes to play intramural hockey for Cabot House, and Pinone has been known to play pickup football games with students on the Quad.
Emidio A. Checcone '92, a resident tutor at Quincy House, says he appreciates HUPD's efforts.
"I haven't noticed any effect like a decrease in crime, but I think it's a good idea," he says. "Seeing them in the dining halls helps develop a relationship between students and the police department."
Bryant says the COPS program has drawn him closer to his work. "Two or three weeks ago I had to arrest this outside guy sitting in Harvard Yard, drinking and yelling obscenities at women, and took it more personally because this is my sector and these are my students," he says.
Bryant says it also makes those rare incidents when he has to discipline students much easier. "We get a lot of party calls, and now the students know who we are so it's like, 'Sorry Kev, we'll try to keep it down.'"
Robert B. Wolinsky '98, co-chair of the Cabot House Committee, says that in one instance, Cambridge neighbors were complaining about the noise from an outdoor movie that the committee was sponsoring. McCarthy took care of it without hard feelings "because we already knew each other," Wolinsky says.
"Jim [Pinone] and Jim [McCarthy] are extremely friendly and outgoing and have gone out of their way to make students feel comfortable," he says.
Branching Out
McCarthy says students who wouldn't think of talking to police now approach him about small problems such as burned-out lights, small thefts, and suspicious characters. "It's starting now. It's getting to a point where we know that they care about us, they know we care about them--it just makes for a safer environment."
Besides the nine volunteers who took all 42 hours of training, all officers and security guards took a condensed eight-hour version that touched on important aspects of community policing.
"Everybody got a taste of it," McCarthy says. "That's the direction HUPD is heading.
"Each area has it's own unique concerns: the Yard has the freshmen, the Quad has the problem of the walk up and down Garden Street, the River has the problem of teenagers or homeless people roaming into the Houses," McCarthy says. "So that's why they're split up like that."
"The Medical School and Business School have their own problems so we're going to expand, so that the whole department will become community-policing oriented," he adds.