Harvard University Police Department Harvard University Police Department The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), a private police agency of Harvard University, is a full-service police department responsible for the safety and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors at the university’s Cambridge and Boston campuses. The HUPD’s chief of police, since 1996, is Francis D. “Bud” Riley. The chief performs his duties under the direction of the university’s general counsel, Robert W. Iuliano. All sworn members of the Harvard University Police Department are sworn as special state police officers under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 22C Section 63. This gives them full powers of arrest
Academic regalia of Harvard University matching waistcoat. Members of the University Council, not doctors, or holding no degree from this University, are authorized to wear the doctor's gown with double crow's-foot of the color of the department to which they belong. All graduates' hoods are black lined with crimson silk, and are cut in the Edinburgh simple shape. Unlike most other United States universities, there is no velvet trim. Rank is indicated by the hood length: master's hoods are 42", doctors 48". Harvard bachelors do not wear hoods. The hood was actually the same hood of the Oxford MA that became fossilized in Harvard before