PROVIDENCE – Brown University Chief of Police Rodney Chatman is leaving the university after a settlement proposal with Brown was approved in Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court on Tuesday.
Chatman, who also served as the university's vice president of public safety, filed the settlement proposal with Brown three months after being placed on administrative leave pending two external reviews commissioned by the university following a mass shooting on campus in December that killed two students and injured nine others.
The settlement proposal came before Chief Judge Robert M. Ferreiri on Tuesday.
According to the Brown Daily Herald, Ferrieri said the agreement was an “amicable separation," and Chatman affirmed that the agreement ends his employment at the university.
Outside firms are conducting an after-action review to examine security preparedness surrounding the December shooting and the emergency response that followed. Brown is also under federal program review to ensure compliance with campus safety and security requirements.
Hugh T. Clements Jr., a former Providence police chief and now interim vice president for public safety and chief of police at Brown, later instituted several security enhancements in response to the Dec. 13 shooting, which claimed the lives of students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.
The shooting came two months after the Brown University Security Patrolperson’s Association issued a vote of no confidence in Chatman and Deputy Chief John Vinson. This followed a unanimous vote of no confidence in August 2025 by the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 863.
Chatman began his law enforcement career in 2005 as a police officer at the University of Cincinnati, where he advanced to captain by 2012. He subsequently served as executive director of campus safety and police chief at the University of Dayton starting in 2016 before moving to the University of Utah in 2020.
However, his tenure in Utah was marked by controversy. Chatman spent roughly half of his year at Utah on administrative leave and departed in 2021. There were allegations that he worked without proper state certification from the Peace Officer Standards and Training board, accusations that the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office ultimately found insufficient to charge.
Hired for an “expanded leadership role” in September 2021, a Brown University press release touted Chatman’s “over three decades of law enforcement experience across multiple higher education [institutions].”
Suspected shooter Claudio Neves Valente, 48, who is also suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, was a former Brown student and Portuguese national. He was found dead on Dec. 18 at a New Hampshire storage facility from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The terms of the settlement proposal, which required a judge’s approval, were not immediately available.
Chatman’s attorney on record, Gregory L. Boyer, did not respond to requests for comment.
University spokesperson Brian Clark said Clements will continue to serve as interim vice president for public safety and chief of police.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
