Ignoring bomb threat to toxic workplace: Rodney Chatman's career explored as Brown University places campus police chief on administrative leave

Brown University's police chief Rodney Chatman has been placed on administrative leave, as per an announcement made on Monday by the school's president Christina Paxson. According to the BBC, the police have previously been criticized for their response to the shooting and failure to arrest a suspect sooner.

On Monday, the US Department of Education stated that they were looking into the security aspect of the institute around the time when the shooting took place. The decision surfaced when the education department started looking at possible violations of the Clery Act at Brown University. A janitor who claimed to have seen the suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, circling the campus "for weeks." 

According to the janitor, no action was taken by the law enforcement at the time. Amid several reports claiming the authorities' inefficiency in this matter, Rodney Chatman's career graph has been gaining attention. According to The New York Post, his career graph included various career-ending accusations over the years. In January 2025, a departing officer told the Brown Daily Herald that Chatman was "vindictive" and ran a "toxic," "s—tshow" department.

Rodney Chatman was further subjected to two no-confidence votes in the past, as many expressed "deep concern" about his leadership skills. Along with Chatman, Brown University has come under scrutiny. In 2021, the university allegedly refused to call Providence police after getting bomb threats from a caller who also claimed that they were carrying an AR-15 gun.

Several students and locals have accused Brown University of not having sufficient security measures to ensure safety on the campus

The December 13 shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine has raised questions about the university's way of dealing with their security. Many, including locals and students, accused the institute of neglecting several security concerns.

There have been several instances suggesting that the university administration neglected safety concerns. An aforementioned incident suggested them refusing to call cops even after getting a bomb threat. According to reports by the Brown Daily Herald, in 2023, the university refused to cancel a planned children's reading, despite getting a warning of a credible shooting threat from NFL player Aaron Hernandez's older brother.

The outlet obtained reports from the Bristol Police Department that suggested that Hernandez had visited the campus on July 7, 2023, and was planning to go ahead with a shooting. After the recent shooting, Christina Paxson shared a message with the whole community, in which she said,

"I want to assure you of Brown’s deep commitment to take every possible action to increase the safety and security of our campus, with the goal of protecting our community from future harm."

Meanwhile, former chief of police of the Providence Police Department, Hugh T. Clements, has become the replacement as long as Chatman remains on administrative leave. While authorities identified Claudio Neves Valente as the suspected shooter in the December 13 shooting, they are still unable to determine a motive behind the incident.

Authorities have stated that Valente killed an MIT professor too, along with the two students at Brown University. The case is now an ongoing investigation.