There's no getting around it. Harvard cops do eat doughnuts and drink coffee, admits officer Alex Kordis of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

Kordis says there's a reason for the stereotyped behavior, however. "You need whatever gets you going," he says, adding, "Besides, it's not just police officers. Plumbers and electricians eat more doughnuts."

And Kordis' partner, Officer Bob J. Kotowski, notes, "You need [the coffee] to wake yourself up, especially if you have a 6-12 [p.m. shift] and have to get up for an 8 a.m. court session."

But that's not all they do.

During the course of a three hour long squadcar interview, the officers were called to check on an alarm triggered at the Freshman Dean's Office. It turned out to have been set off accidentally by an office staffer leaving late at night.

Later, the friendly cruise turned into a car chase, when Kotowski noticed a car with a driver whose baseball cap was barely visible above the steering wheel.

"Looks like a 13-year-old," Kotowski said.

While Kotowski trailed the car, Kordis called the station to ask, "Can you read an S and L on an 874 Pirate Delta Golf?"

Translated from policespeak, this phrase means "Can you check the computer listing on car license plate number 874-PDG? It might be a stolen vehicle," Kordis explained.

In fact, the driver turned out to be a small, baseball cap-sporting woman. But police officers can never let their guard down, Kotowski says.

"You can't be lulled into complacency because in the next minute and a half, something could happen," he warns.

At the same time, Kotowski advises his partner, a recent graduate of the police academy, that an officer cannot "go in like a lion and come out like a lamb."

"You have to go in easy, make sure you get all the facts," he says.

For instance, if an officer is stopping a fight between two men on the street, he should not pin down the presumed assailant without first taking the time to "count one two three," calm down and assess the situation. Pinning down the victim by mistake would allow the mugger to escape, he says.

Kotowski and Kordis chat comfortably while sitting behind a dashboard that looks like it came from Cape Canaveral--with controls ranging from the usual "sirens" and "rotating lights" to one labelled, mysteriously, "take down wig wag."