PROVIDENCE — Brown University had received numerous warnings about its campus police leaders before announcing Monday that it is placing the chief on leave in the wake of the Dec. 13 mass shooting that left two students dead and nine injured.
In August, the union representing Brown’s 10 campus police sergeants issued a vote of no confidence in then-Police Chief Rodney Chatman and Deputy Chief John Vinson.
In October, Brown’s Security and Patrol Person’s Association, which represents 40 other employees, issued its own vote of no confidence in Chatman and Vinson.
The shooting occurred less than three months after the student newspaper printed a blistering editorial that accused Brown of “failing in its obligation to provide all members of the community a safe environment to work and learn.”
It occurred less than seven months after a former Brown police officer testified at the Rhode Island State House, saying the department had used the private school’s exemption from public records law to purposefully hide information about incidents on campus.
And it occurred three years after Brown was criticized for its handling of threats posed by former Brown quarterback coach Dennis “DJ” Hernandez, the troubled brother of the late Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.
On Tuesday, Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark said the university’s Department of Public Safety “is deeply committed to protecting the safety of students, faculty, staff and campus visitors.”
“That commitment extends to each of the officers, staff members and leaders who carry out the department’s mission every day,” Clark said. “Brown DPS works on a continual basis to provide staff the training and resources required to protect safety on campus, including when there are threats to members of our community.”
Chatman and Vinson did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday.
When Brown hired Chatman in 2021, university President Christina H. Paxson said, “We are set to welcome a truly accomplished leader who is ideally positioned to guide this work at Brown.” She noted Chatman had more than three decades of experience, including campus safety leadership roles at the University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton, and University of Utah.
But even then, controversy was evident.
In that announcement, Brown officials noted Chatman had been on leave from his previous post at the University of Utah, after an allegation of performing law enforcement duties before receiving his police certification in Utah. But Brown officials said, “The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that he performed administrative duties only, as required, and that its investigation found no evidence of any misconduct.”
In 2021, Chatman sued the University of Utah, claiming it blocked his investigation into the 2018 murder of student Lauren McCluskey, and used him as “a scapegoat” to protect its public image.
In May of this year, a national representative for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, John Rossi, wrote to Paxson, raising questions about another department leader.
Rossi asked why an “administrative inquiry” into the Department of Public Safety’s “internal climate” at Brown was going to be conducted by Vinson, the deputy chief.
Rossi called that decision “particularly troubling” because, he said, an internal review of the University of Washington police department while Vinson was police chief there had found that the department was “plagued by a ‘toxic environment’ and ‘culture of fear and dysfunction.’”
The sergeants’ Aug. 27 no-confidence vote in Chatman and Vinson reflected “serious concerns over the failed leadership, contract violations, and policies that jeopardize public safety and the sergeants’ well-being,” Rossi wrote at the time.
Rossi, who represents both the campus sergeants and patrol officers, wrote that, “The university has repeatedly ignored union concerns about a toxic workplace environment, which has led to zero resolutions for the individuals who keep Brown University’s campus safe.”
The Oct. 17 no-confidence vote by campus patrol officers stemmed, in part, from concern that the department “has prioritized the creation of administrative positions while reducing the number of officers assigned to field operations,” Rossi wrote at the time.
“Despite repeated warnings from the union, management has failed to address ongoing technology failures that hinder officers in the field,” he wrote. “These unresolved issues have led to high turnover and burnout among officers, many of whom are tasked with repeatedly training new employees due to constant staff departures.”
This week, Rossi declined to add to his prior comments on Brown police leaders, but said, “I stand by the statements I’ve made in the past about the no confidence votes.”
Regarding the shooting, he said, “I don’t think going to class should be a dangerous proposition.”
Rossi praised Brown’s decision to replace Chatman on an interim basis with retired Colonel Hugh T. Clements Jr., a former Providence police chief.
“Chief Clements is an outstanding choice,” he said. “He is the embodiment of professionalism in policing and is one of the most respected law enforcement officers in the nation.”
On Oct. 30, the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper published an editorial saying, “Chatman and Vinson have lost the trust of their officers — and now, the editorial page board. Brown must move beyond opaque statements and half-hearted investigations and instead take decisive action to restore safety and integrity to the DPS.”
The editorial noted that in January an investigation by the student newspaper “found a department where some officers say they faced harassment by colleagues based on their gender and sexual orientation.” It said officers told the paper they feared retaliation for raising concerns about the department.
Also, the editorial said the department “mishandled threats to campus safety,” including a 2023 incident involving “DJ” Hernandez.
Police have said Hernandez drove to the University of Connecticut and to Brown, where he once served as quarterbacks coach, to “map the schools out” for a shooting. In February, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to carry out a shooting at UConn, and to kill three people including a judge.
The Brown Daily Herald reported that a Brown police sergeant was briefed about Hernandez’s threats on July 18, 2023, and raised concerns about holding a children’s reading event on the Main Green that day. The sergeant cancelled plans to bring the department’s service dog, Elvy, to the event, but an administrator brushed off the sergeant’s concerns, the newspaper reported.
Chatman wrote that the sergeant’s decision “was not based on a direct order, credible intelligence report or departmental directive” and “was considered highly inappropriate and bordered on insubordination,” the newspaper reported.
In a message to the Brown community at the time, Chatman said, “Despite reports of an alleged visit by the suspect to Providence, our investigation to date indicates that he had not been on Brown’s campus in the weeks prior to arrest.” But “out of an abundance of caution,” he said, the department “implemented protective measures immediately, including redeploying police officers on campus.”
The editorial also said that in 2021, the Department of Public Safety took nearly an hour to call the Providence Police Department’s K-9 unit when responding to a bomb threat.
The newspaper said Chatman defended the department’s response by saying that officers were equipped to handle such incidents on campus. “But based on the unions’ recent votes of no confidence, this appears not to be the case,” the editorial concluded.
On May 22, former Brown University police officer Michael Greco testified before the state Senate Judiciary Committee about a bill to overhaul the state’s Access to Public Records Act.
Greco, an officer at Brown for 18 years before leaving last year, spoke in support of making private colleges such as Brown subject to the public records law. He told legislators Brown had used its exemption from the law to hide incidents and handled matters that Providence police should have handled, including “two people swinging knives in the graduate center bar.”
Greco said that in November 2021, Brown police received a call reporting “potential shooter” in a building who vowed to shoot any police officer that approached. “Brown told us we were not allowed to use our radios ... which are monitored by Providence police, and then had us stand in front of the building.”
Greco, who declined to comment when reached by phone this week, told the Senate committee, “Those kind of incidents happen because of perverse incentives and those perverse incentives take place because they’re not held to the same standards as the rest of the police departments in the state.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.