"We're probably 20 years ahead of most departments in the country," says Captain Jack Morse, acting director of Harvard Police, about the new computer system. The system has also been invaluable in helping the department with allocating resources. Morse says, For example, a recent realignment of night-patrol officers to give the Quad more coverage, but still maintain a concentration of officers at areas with a history of criminal activity, came about because of the computer.

"We redistributed our forces somewhat, to make some areas better patrolled, but didn't sacrifice anything in the process," Morse says.

Workers seem pleased with the changes the new technology has brought. "When people come into the Police Department now they can really say. 'You guys have come a long way,'" says Communications Clerk Carl A. Tempesta, a department worker since 1978. Tempesta gestures to the $250,000 Motorola communications console he sits behind, installed in 1979, and computer by his right hand. "They say, 'Hey! This is a police department!' It makes the university campus police a professional organization," he says.

Harvard is not unique in having a police computer. Several other nearby colleges, including MIT, have systems that are similar. Both Cambridge and Boston have computerized system and are linked by direct line to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) run by the FBI. Harvard has been on a waiting list for such a link for the past 18 months.

At MIT, Sergeant Ann Glavin, in charge of the computer system there, says police operations are "streamlined and smoother" since the installation in October of a Zenith datasystems computer.

There have been problems with computers at the Harvard department. Early in the program, backers admit, there was some opposition to computerization among the rank-and-file.

'Officers were worried about change. They were afraid that their jobs would change: they'd have to redefine their reports, redefine the information they were getting" from crime victims, Nagle says.

But now police officials are already planning additions to the computer, although they hesitate to predict a definite timetable for building it up. "This system will be dated in six or seven years. Then we'll be able to get something for half the money that can do three times as much," Nagle says.

Morse speaks more cautiously about purchasing more computer equipment. "There are certainly things we're doing manually now that we could be using automation for," he says, mentioning accounting and word-processing as examples. "But we have what we need now. We don't have a Cadillac computer, with a lot of stuff we don't need."

Because the Durango system has proved so useful, however, the department will spend around $5000 sometime in the next few months to purchase a second storage disk for the system. The first one is already full, with 20 million characters entered in slightly less than five months.

An officer enters the department's communications room. After business hours, the small room turns into a social center of sorts as guards come off duty and stop to exchange news. "Everything originates from here, without a doubt," the officer says, tapping the communications console. "You get wrong information from here, there's nothing you can do," he says. Does the computer help? "Definitely," he says, "it can give you information fast and accurately." Then he stops, looks at the screen, and adds quickly: "Of course, from there on, the officer handles it."