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Community-Oriented Problem-Solving (COPS) Philosophy

The mission of the Harvard University Police Department is to maintain a safe and secure campus by providing quality policing in partnership with the community. Together, the Department and the community can maintain a safe and secure environment that leaves its members free to pursue the education and scholarship that brings people to Harvard University. To fulfill its mission, the Department has adopted a community-oriented problem-solving (COPS) philosophy.

The core components of the Department's COPS philosophy are:

• Prevention - the HUPD seeks to prevent crime rather than merely responding to it after it occurs. As Sir Robert Peel, known as the father of modern policing, stated that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
• Partnerships - the HUPD determines policing priorities in partnership with the community. Because safety and security is a shared responsibility, the HUPD encourages students, faculty, and staff to take an active role in maintaining their own safety and the security of others.
• Problem solving - HUPD officers seek to identify the underlying causes and contributors to crime and disorder and implement solutions to those problems, often in coordination with community partners.

Officers are committed to preventing crime and disorder and focus their efforts on eliminating the underlying causes of those problems. To do this officers actively engage in partnerships with the community to address and solve problems. Partnerships are the foundation of effective problem solving and crime prevention. Through these partnerships and collaborative problem solving, officers deal with problems, prevent crime, and help maintain a community free of disorder.

To help build, maintain, and strengthen these partnerships within the University community, the Department is divided into three geographic-based teams. Officers are then further assigned to specific buildings, departments, and schools within their patrol areas. Officers are expected to engage in both formal and informal community outreach at locations and with students, faculty, staff, and visitors on a daily basis.

• Allston/Longwood
• River/Quad
• Yard/North Yard

The HUPD operates substations where community members can register their laptops or bicycles, file a police report, or talk to an officer about any safety issues that they have. Each substation posts its own hours of operation. Each substation posts its own hours of operation.

Location of substations:

• 114 Western Avenue
• 90 Smith Street (Longwood Campus)
• 29 Garden Street, ground floor
• Littaeur Building (Harvard Kennedy School), ground floor
• Mather House, first floor
• Science Center first floor