CORRECTION APPENDED

The Harvard College Safety Committee released a report Friday with recommendations for the Harvard University Police Department to consider and potentially implement in the future. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

The six-person committee, assembled by President Drew G. Faust in September, was charged with examining HUPD’s practices in light of accusations of racial profiling in three separate incidents involving HUPD officers.

The most notable of the three incidents, which has become informally known in the student community as the “Quad incident,” occurred in May 2007. HUPD officers were called about a Saturday afternoon field day organized by the Black Men’s Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women on the Radcliffe Quadrangle, causing an uproar among black students and faculty.

HUPD officers reportedly asked students for their identification and asked students if they had permission to be there.

In recent memory, there have been two other alleged incidents involving racial profiling.

In 2004 S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor and the director of the Harvard Foundation, was stopped by police while walking through the Yard. A black high school student was confronted by HUPD officers when trying to remove a lock from his bike in 2008.

Headed by Ralph C. Martin II, the former Suffolk County district attorney and currently a managing partner at the Boston law firm Bingham McCutchen, the committee made four primary recommendations.

The first calls for the creation of a University Safety Advisory Committee of designated and committed representatives from the broader University community.

The second recommends that HUPD implement an “account management” structure, in which all of accountable for developing and maintaining ongoing relationships with University members and groups.

“There are a lot of times when HUPD officers have had ongoing relationships with someone in a group, such as a House, but it’s not necessarily institutionalized,” committee member and former Undergraduate Council President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 said. “This in an attempt to track quantitatively how often a police officer would network with certain parts of the community.”

The third recommendation proposes that HUPD significantly expand the office, staffing and resources of its Diversity and Community Liaison Officer.

The report also calls for the creation of a public safety ombudsman position to be occupied by someone unaffiliated with HUPD. The ombudsman would assess the relationship between HUPD and the University community.

The report additionally recommended that HUPD officers be required to carry business cards, which would include information on how people can submit feedback about their experiences with HUPD officers.

HUPD lauded the committee’s work as constructive.

“We look forward to working with the community and University leadership as we move towards the implementation phase,” HUPD Chief Francis “Bud” Riley wrote in a statement.

—Staff writer Emily J. Hogan can be reached at ejhogan@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Marianna N. Tishchenko can be reached at mtishch@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The April 27 news article "Report On HUPD Released" incorrectly stated that the report on HUPD was released by the Harvard College Safety Committee. In fact, the report was released by a different committee, which was created last fall.