Officers in Brown’s Department of Public Safety have raised concerns about their own safety and the safety of the Brown community, alleging that employees in the DPS responded inappropriately to bomb and shooting threats by altering written reports and not adequately disclosing information to the Brown community regarding these threats.
Several employees said they felt DPS leadership brushed their concerns aside when issues were raised to upper management.
In a statement sent to The Herald on behalf of the department, DPS Chief Rodney Chatman wrote that the department assesses and improves its response protocols through post-hoc reviews. “If some individuals have not felt fully confident during certain events, the overall posture of the department has remained one of measured professionalism and preparedness,” he added.
The Herald spoke with five current and former officers and reviewed internal documents, emails, public police records and audio recordings. Some individuals were granted anonymity for fear of retaliation that could jeopardize their employment.
In one instance on July 18, 2023, a DPS sergeant was contacted by the police department of Bristol, Connecticut warning that it was investigating a shooting threat made against Brown by former University football coach Dennis “DJ” Hernandez.
According to reports from the Bristol Police Department obtained by The Herald, Hernandez told a person close to him that he had visited Brown’s campus on July 7, 2023 hoping to plan the shooting.
After being briefed on the threats made by Hernandez, an officer raised concerns to the DPS’s Director of Advocacy, Engagement and Communications Quiana Young about the department’s plans to host a children’s reading event on the Main Green on July 18, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
When his fears that the children could be targeted by Hernandez were brushed off by Young, the officer decided to cancel his appearance with Elvy — the DPS’s service dog at the time — hoping that the event would be canceled as a result.
The event continued without the officer or Elvy in attendance, and Young criticized the decision to cancel Elvy’s appearance, according to another source familiar with the matter.
Chatman wrote that the officer’s decision “was not based on a direct order, credible intelligence report or departmental directive” and “was considered highly inappropriate and bordered on insubordination.”
In a response to The Herald’s request for comment, Young deferred to Chatman.
On July 19, 2023, the day after DPS officers were informed of the threat, Hernandez was arrested in Bristol and later convicted and sentenced for his threats. “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,” Chatman wrote in a July 26, 2023 community-wide email.
“This statement was based on data ascertained from investigative tools, campus video footage and law enforcement collaboration,” Chatman wrote in the statement sent to The Herald. “No verified evidence placed Hernandez on campus.”
The July 2023 incident was not the first time DPS officers raised concerns over how the department addressed a campus safety threat.
Michael Greco, an officer who worked in the DPS for 17 years before leaving in fall 2024, said in an interview with The Herald that DPS leadership also failed to properly respond to a previous shooting and bomb threat at Brown in 2021, neglecting DPS protocol in the process. This incident, Greco said, put his and other officers’ lives at risk. He is currently suing the University in workers’ compensation court.
Despite the threat, no shooter or explosives were ultimately identified on campus.
On Nov. 7, 2021, the DPS received a call from an individual claiming to have placed bombs in several buildings around the Main Green and stating that they were stationed in Rhode Island Hall with an AR-15 rifle, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Herald via Greco.
“If any police approach me, I’ll open fire on them immediately and any other student I see,” the caller said in a recording of the threat, which matched other officers’ accounts of the day.
Despite safety concerns from the responding officers on the incident, the DPS delayed calling the Providence Police Department and did not do so through official channels.
After being notified of the threat at 1:50 p.m., Greco said that he and two other officers told their supervisor that they felt unprepared to respond to the call as they lacked proper equipment, according to a copy of Greco’s original report detailing the incident. They requested that the PPD be informed of the incident — a request which their supervisor said was denied.
Greco’s request for PPD reinforcement was standard procedure, according to two former DPS employees and an internal department policy document obtained by The Herald.
The department policy explicitly acknowledges that the DPS “is not staffed or equipped to provide special operations resources or support” and “outside law enforcement agencies such as Providence Police and Rhode Island State Police will be called upon to provide special operations resources and support.” Special operations typically refer to large-scale incidents that require tactical units, such as SWAT.
“Our officers are not only trained but expected to be emotionally and physically prepared to respond to any incident on campus,” Chatman wrote. “Being unprepared is not an acceptable position when serving in a public safety role, especially on a university campus where community members depend on swift, competent and confident responses to crisis situations.”
DPS Lieutenant John Carvalho’s written account of the November 2021 incident said he personally called a PPD officer to request assistance — a breach of department protocol, according to Greco and one former officer. The call did not appear in the DPS’s dispatch log, which Greco and two former officers say is also a breach of protocol.
Chatman acknowledged the delay and wrote the decision “was made with careful consideration and best practice guidance on recognition and response to ‘swatting’ calls,” noting that other Ivy League schools received similar threats that day.
Chatman wrote that Carvalho’s call was “based on his operational judgement,” describing the way in which the call was placed as “not ideal” but adding that calls of this nature occasionally occur in “urgent settings.”
“We have since reinforced procedures around documenting such contacts to enhance transparency,” Chatman added.
Carvalho did not respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
While Carvalho’s call was made to the PPD’s K-9 unit at 2:45 p.m., Sergeant Sean Kennedy — the first officer sent by the PPD — did not arrive at Brown until 3:50 p.m., according to internal documents written by Captain James Jackson of the DPS. This marked nearly an hour after the original call.
Chatman wrote that the PPD’s delayed arrival may have been due to “service prioritization and logistics” and that there “was no internal intentional delay.”
The PPD did not respond to a request for comment. Jackson could not be personally reached for comment.
After arriving at Brown, Kennedy was briefed on the threats, and he arranged for a PPD K-9 unit to respond. The K-9 and officer arrived at the Main Green by 4:13 p.m. — nearly two and a half hours after the threat was first called in, according to the dispatch log.
Prior to the PPD’s arrival, Greco and other officers arrived on Bannister Street and cleared Rhode Island Hall at 2:55 p.m., finding no suspected shooter, according to the event’s dispatch log.
None of the PPD’s reports of the incident obtained by The Herald mention the active shooter threat.
The DPS did not send an alert to Brown community members about the incident until 3:50 p.m., when the department informed those on campus that both Brown and Providence police forces were “investigating multiple buildings on campus involving a bomb threat,” but made no mention of the shooting threats made against students and officers.
Greco and two other current and former officers expressed frustration with what they describe as a pattern of “vague” public alerts that do not contain all necessary information to update the community. The alerts are sent by DPS leadership, usually Chatman, and are required under federal law when there are “crimes considered to be a threat to other students and employees.”
When asked about these concerns, Chatman said that the DPS assesses threats “in real time” and evaluates “the credibility, immediacy and scope of the incident.”
“While we strive for transparency,” Chatman wrote, “we also avoid broadcasting speculative or unconfirmed information that may cause unnecessary panic or compromise an investigation.”
After clearing the at-risk buildings named by the caller, the DPS closed the incident at around 6 p.m. that evening.
While the officers’ concerns and the DPS’s initial refusal to call the PPD appeared in the first rendition of Greco’s incident report, it was excluded from a modified version of the report, according to The Herald’s analysis of the two versions, both obtained from Greco. The second version lists an alteration date and time logged two days after the original submission.
This and modifications of other reports have raised red flags among some officers at the DPS who feel that doing so demonstrates the department’s willingness to discount employee concerns, according to three current and former officers, including Greco.
Reports may be changed when it contains “information that is inaccurate, superfluous or not essential to the legal or factual record,” Chatman wrote. “Supervisors are responsible for ensuring reports are factually accurate, free of speculative language and professionally written.”
After noticing that his report had been modified, Greco reached out to Chatman to discuss his concerns, Greco said. Chatman initially said that the department would schedule a debriefing meeting, but in a subsequent email reviewed by The Herald, Jackson requested — without providing a reason — that Greco be excluded from the meeting.
Chatman wrote that Greco “was not arbitrarily excluded from any communication or process” and that attendance in debriefings is decided by DPS command staff. “While we regret that Mr. Greco felt unsupported, we took his concerns seriously and responded accordingly.”
A little over a month after the original incident, Greco emailed Chatman and other DPS administrators again, reiterating his concerns about the department’s response to the threats.
“As I told you before, officers of this department, myself included, worry that Brown’s desire to protect its reputation, at all costs, leads to a willingness to gamble with our lives,” Greco wrote in the email.
Chatman replied, promising to schedule a meeting that included Greco. It was later scheduled for Jan. 13, 2022. In the meeting, which he recorded, Greco described how he and his colleagues felt unprepared to respond to the November 2021 incident, noting that they had discussed possibly walking away from the threat altogether.
After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that spring, Greco took a leave of absence from the department, but returned in fall 2022 due to a need for income.
On July 18, 2023 during the incident involving Hernandez, Greco’s PTSD flashbacks started to return as he felt department leadership continued to brush off his concerns, he said in an interview with The Herald. “They had stolen my sense of safety and control.”
“Mr. Greco’s fitness for duty became a legitimate concern raised by departmental leadership,” Chatman wrote. “Mr. Greco ultimately declined to participate in the required evaluation, which limited the department’s ability to resolve the matter through formal channels.”
This “fitness-for-duty evaluation” was intended to ensure that Greco “was emotionally and mentally prepared to carry out his responsibilities safely and effectively,” Chatman added.
Greco ultimately decided to leave the department in fall 2024, as he experienced increasingly severe PTSD symptoms triggered while working at the DPS.
In an email to The Herald, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote that the University did not wish to provide additional comment beyond Chatman’s response.
Sophia Wotman is a University news editor covering activism and affinity & identity. She is a junior from Long Island, New York concentrating in Political Science with a focus on women’s rights. She is a jazz trumpet player, and often performs on campus and around Providence.
