Brown campus safety’s DEI focus questioned after deadly shooting

As Windfall police proceed their investigation into the mass capturing at Brown College on Saturday afternoon that left two useless and 9 injured, the Ivy League faculty’s head of campus safety has saved a low profile.

Rodney Chatman is Brown’s vice chairman for public security and emergency administration, a place that makes him the college’s government director of public security and head of the college police.

His LinkedIn web page states that he started his profession as a police officer on the College of Cincinnati in 2005, changing into a captain in that division in 2012.

In 2016, he left for the College of Dayton, the place he grew to become government director of campus security and police chief. In 2020, he moved west and have become police chief of the College of Utah. His years-long tenure at that faculty was marred by controversy after he was accused of carrying a badge and a gun earlier than formally changing into a police officer within the state, which is against the law. That one accusations were unfoundedhowever he spent half his 12 months on depart.

Left: A police automobile is parked at an intersection close to against the law scene at Brown College, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Windfall, RI, following a capturing Saturday on the college. Proper: Brown College Police Chief Rodney Chatman at an unknown date. (Greg Norman Diamond/Fox Information Digital; Brown College)

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Based on the Salt Lake Tribune, Chatman mentioned he confronted pushback over the police reforms he tried to implement on the faculty. He left for Brown in 2021.

In October, two native police unions, the Brown College Safety Patrolperson’s Affiliation and the College Police Sergeants Union, issued a vote of no confidence in Chatman, with the previous expressing “deep concern amongst members concerning the course and management of the Division of Public Security,” police mentioned. Brown Daily Herald.

After a gunman, who has but to be recognized and stays at massive, burst right into a first-floor classroom of town faculty’s Barus & Holley constructing Saturday afternoon, inflicting demise and destruction, campus safety has turn into a focus. The varsity has confronted criticism over the killer’s entry to the constructing and the shortage of safety cameras that might have helped establish the shooter.

Chatman solely briefly addressed the capturing within the days after the capturing, saying that three out of doors sirens on campus weren’t activated throughout the capturing as a result of pace at which the occasion occurred, in accordance with the Rhode Island Current.

Fox Information Digital has discovered that range, fairness and inclusion have been a significant focus for Brown’s campus security division and for Chatman himself.

Emergency responders collect on Waterman Road at Brown College in Windfall, RI, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, throughout the investigation of a capturing. (Mark Stockwell/AP Picture)

“As we proceed to evaluate and strengthen campus security practices amid the essential nationwide debate surrounding regulation enforcement, we are going to welcome a really achieved chief who’s ideally positioned to information this work at Brown,” Christina Paxson, president of Brown College, mentioned in a message saying Chatman’s hiring. “Chief Chatman will deliver not solely a wonderful regulation enforcement report, but in addition the values, abilities and experiences that may allow him to successfully have interaction our whole neighborhood in advancing campus security in each facet.”

On Worldwide Ladies’s Day in March, Chatman, together with your entire Brown Division of Public Security (DPS), celebrated the division’s feminine officers.

“Right this moment, on Worldwide Ladies’s Day, we proudly rejoice the unbelievable girls of Brown DPS who serve and shield our neighborhood with dedication and power,” DPS mentioned in a LinkedIn message. “Just a few of our officers share what makes them most happy with working in regulation enforcement and their recommendation for younger girls contemplating this profession. Thanks to all the ladies on our staff who make our division EPIC!”

The submit included a video with testimonials from feminine officers.

“Have a look at our wonderful staff!!!! Go BRUNO!” Chatman mentioned as share the message.

In a single previous message On LinkedIn, Chatman requested different campus police departments to not submit images of themselves with weapons or performing tactical maneuvers, suggesting this might instill worry of their communities.

Legislation enforcement officers carrying weapons collect at Brown College in Windfall, RI, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, throughout the investigation of a capturing. (Steven Senne/AP Picture)

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“To my police leaders: Please contemplate eradicating images prominently displayed in your web sites and promotional supplies of your officers partaking in tactical maneuvers and displaying weapons. Everyone knows you’ve got them,” he mentioned. “Think about exhibiting your compassion and involvement in the neighborhood, which is able to assist ease the nervousness of our presence.”

Brown DPS is internet hosting listening classes the place college students can deliver their considerations to authorities, in accordance with a web page on the college’s web site.

“Throughout the listening session format, college students are inspired to take care of share ideas and proposals on points which have the potential to affect police-community relations and campus security programming on Brown’s campus,” the web page mentioned, including that there are “many points that deeply concern us all.”

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“College students can even have the chance to study extra concerning the division’s Range and Inclusion Motion Plan (DIAP) and supply suggestions,” the web page mentioned.

In 2016, the campus safety division launched the Range & Inclusion Motion Plan (DIAP), targeted on range throughout the campus security division. These efforts proceed as we speak.

A break up picture exhibiting a number of nonetheless pictures from surveillance video taken close to Brown College of an individual of curiosity earlier than and after a faculty capturing Saturday. (FBI Boston)

“Public Security is dedicated to creating a various office that helps the varied neighborhood inside Brown College,” Brown mentioned web page says. “We perceive that having a various workforce could have the flexibility to extend belief with the neighborhood we serve, and to tell and enrich our organizational local weather.”

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In 2017, DPS introduced in a transgender educational, identified solely as Dr. Scout is named, for one three-day diversity workshop on “cultural competency and neighborhood engagement (LGBTQ, transgender, various populations), well being disparities, knowledge assortment, language suggestions, stigma and the way it impacts lives, developments and methods to enhance companies inside these communities.”

DPS even has a range assertion prominently displayed on considered one of its web sites Brown web pages.

“We’re dedicated to anticipating, planning for, and responding to the wants of our various and ever-changing neighborhood. We search the enter and skills of all members of the college and our efforts to safe the campus,” it mentioned.

“Public Security works diligently to construct and keep belief and constructive relationships with the varied neighborhood we serve at Brown,” mentioned another DPS page. “As communities throughout the nation proceed to face racial unrest and police reforms, we assist the College’s push to confront racial injustice. We additionally acknowledge that there’s at all times room for enchancment inside our group. We are going to proceed to advance our dedication to establishing and constructing constructive and respectful neighborhood relationships, particularly with Black, Indigenous, and Folks of Coloration (BIPOC).”

A bouquet of flowers rests on snow, Sunday, December 14, 2025, on the campus of Brown College, not removed from the positioning of a capturing, in Windfall, RI (AP Picture/Steven Senne)

Fox Information contributor Nicole Parker blasted Brown for his deal with DEI.

“When the DEI program at Brown began for a few decade, it seems that range was a better precedence than campus security, and now the college and its college students should choose up the items of their deadly failure,” she mentioned. “Woke does not work in the case of campus security! And sadly, two harmless college students misplaced their lives.”

Ella Prepare dinner of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek nationwide residing in Virginia, have been killed within the assault on Saturday.

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Brown officers pointed Fox Information Digital to a Monday statement concerning the tragedy, which features a record of enhanced security measures in response to an investigation into DEI and campus security.

Chatman didn’t return a request for remark.