The bikes are more fun, she says, and its “easier to catch people doing things wrong.”

For example, she recounts a recent incident involving a “peeping tom” outside Greenough Hall. The responding officer purposefully chose the bike, and was able to ride right up to the suspect before he noticed the officer.

While DiVirgilio struggles to remember her funniest call, she says that humorous incidents occur almost daily.

“My partner and I have been to so many calls where we look at each other afterwards and we’re like, ‘How hard was that to hold in until the end of the call?’” she says with a laugh.

9:05 p.m.—DiVirgilio races to Gund Hall on reports of a design school student who fainted but has since regained consciousness. He declines medical attention.

One of the most unique aspects of DiVirgilio’s work is her role as the instructor of the department’s Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) course. The course offers females at the University—students and staff alike—the chance to learn and practice self-defense techniques.

“People learn to trust HUPD more after they take RAD classes,” says DiVirgilio, adding that many of her former students ask to speak to her directly when they need police assistance.

Although she’s only taught the course for a couple of years, it has already paid dividends.

One graduate of the course was attacked during a trip overseas and successfully defended herself. When she returned to Harvard, she sent cookies to HUPD with a card attached that read: “Thank you. RAD turned out to be helpful to me when I was studying abroad.”

Even DiVirgilio has used the techniques she teaches in RAD. A year ago, she says, one of the College’s student groups called HUPD to remove an “unwanted guest.”

When DiVirgilio and her back-up arrived at the scene, the “unwanted guest” shouted obscenities at her and would only speak rationally to her male back-up.

“Finally, the guy tried to jump me,” she says. “I shoved him back and pushed him onto the ground. That was that.”

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.