SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD VOLUME CLXI, ISSUE 9
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
FRIDAY, MARCH 20
Interim DPS police chief details officer vacancies, campus safety in first interview since arriving at Brown There were 15 vacant positions in DPS when Hugh Clements took on his role BY EMILY FEIL METRO & UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
JAKE PARKER / HERALD
On Dec. 22 — just nine days after the Dec. 13 shooting — President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 announced that Hugh Clements would step into the role of interim vice president for public safety and chief of police. That day, the University also announced that Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman would be on immediate administrative leave. In the fall of 2025, the Brown Police Sergeants Union and Brown University Security Patrolperson’s Association issued votes of no confidence in the leadership of Chatman and Deputy Chief John Vinson, who is also on administrative leave, according to Clements. On March 19, The Herald sat down with Clements for his first interview since taking over as DPS Police Chief. According to Clements, there were vacant positions in DPS upon his arrival at Brown, which the department is working to fill. Hiring “a police officer is a lengthy — by design and rightfully so — process,” he said. According to University spokesperson
Brian Clark, there were 15 vacant officer positions in December 2025. As of March, there are 12 vacant positions. Clements said that the department is in the “latter” part of the hiring process for filling those positions. DPS currently employs 70 officers, Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. A 2025 Herald investigation revealed that officers had left the department due to allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic work environment. Another investigation that year found that officers believed leadership mishandled responses to bomb and shooting threats. Clark said that both Chatman and Vinson remain employed by Brown, but Clark declined to comment on whether they will be returning to their positions when Clements concludes his time in the interim role. Clements served in the Providence Police Department for a total of 38 years, acting as police chief for 12 of those years. In 2023 — when Clements retired from the PPD — he was named director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, where he “oversaw grants, training and technical assistance of 18,000 police departments,” he said. Clements comes into his role at a time when Brown’s safety and security are being assessed following the Dec. 13 shooting. The U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation into Brown’s security and emergency notification sys-
tems on the same day Clements was named interim police chief. On Jan. 29, the University announced that it would be working with global consulting firm Teneo to conduct two external security assessments following the shooting. According to Clements, DPS is waiting for those reports to be finalized before enacting changes to the structure or practices of the department. But he noted that DPS may not follow all recommendations provided by the reports. The department will “pick and choose what is right for Brown,” he said. “They make recommendations. They’re not mandates,” Clements said. “We will
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Dancing with the professors
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Students express concerns with accessing University psychological support following shooting Clinical care options include same-day urgent care and the 24/7 CAPS line BY ZARINA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR Over three months after the Dec. 13 shooting, Ava Rodriguez ’29 still does not feel like the University has provided suitable resources for students like herself. Rodriguez was in Barus and Holley 166 when the shooting took place. According to a Student Support Services email sent specifically to students in close proximity to the shooting, CAPS offers “brief and intermittent individual psychological treatment,” which was not the long-term help that Rodriguez said she was looking for. Instead, she has been meeting with an outside therapist offering free services since winter break. The day after the shooting, the student body was also sent an email offering 24/7 crisis support from CAPS, among other resources. Since returning to campus, River Gilbert ’29 has met with CAPS once following their triage and intake appointment,
they told The Herald. Students must first partake in a 30-minute triage appointment where they briefly discuss their circumstances with a CAPS counselor. The counselor will then provide recommendations, which can include “care at CAPS, referral to on-campus supports or a referral to an off-campus mental health professional.” Gilbert noted that they have experienced more difficulty finding a CAPS appointment that works with their schedule this semester, which they believe may be due to a higher demand for appointments. “They’re very clearly more booked than they were last semester,” they said. “I’m disappointed in CAPS because they promise you’ll be able to access resources for mental health whenever you need them,” Gilbert added. This semester, Gilbert said it has been “really scary sometimes” due to the insufficient availability of psychological support resources. If “you or your friends need help … there’s literally nowhere to go, unless you want to wait a week and a half to get into CAPS,” they said. Director of CAPS Bryant Ford wrote in an email to The Herald that the team
has been putting effort into meeting the “heightened needs of our community” this semester. Ford wrote that CAPS has “moved beyond individual, one-on-one psychotherapy as the primary model of care” and has instead “embraced a diversified approach, providing a range of clinical and non-clinical options.” Clinical care options this semester include same-day urgent care, the 24/7 CAPS on-demand line and daily drop-in sessions, which require no wait times, according to Ford. CAPS is also offering support groups and other events “to foster spaces for healing and community-building,” Ford wrote. The University has also expanded access to their partnership with Timely Care, which offers students up to 20 sessions of free virtual therapy, he added. “It goes without saying that this has been a tremendously challenging moment for our campus, and one that has demanded an approach that offers a range of resources,” Ford wrote. Over winter break, Gilbert said they tried meeting with a TimelyCare counselor and “hung up within five minutes”
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because the counselor had “clearly not read anything about (their) file or even (their) profile information.” “We are sorry to hear a student felt dismissed or unheard,” TimelyCare’s Executive Director of Mental Health Services Jerry Walker wrote in an email to The Herald regarding this experience. “That is not the experience we want any student to have.” According to Walker, 536 students have completed counseling appointments with TimelyCare since Dec. 13 and, as a collective, they have rated session quality a 4.97 out of five and counselors a 4.98. If a student rates a session or provider a three or lower, “we immediately investigate,” he wrote. “While not every counseling experience will be perfect for every student, the evidence supports that most Brown students are receiving high-quality care,” Walker added. Walker explained that the introductory, “get-to-know-you” phases of typical counseling sessions are “a core part of good clinical practice, so the counselor
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