Brown University on Wednesday pledged to carry out a sweeping review of campus security after the Ivy League school was rocked by a shooting over the weekend.
“Brown has heightened security on campus considerably in recent days, and we will do a large-scale, systematic security review of the entire campus. We know we live in a different time,” Brian Clark, Brown’s Vice President for News and Strategic Campus Communications, said in a statement to Washington Examiner.
The Rhode Island university’s surveillance camera system has been blamed as one of the reasons why the shooter remains at large after gunning down students studying for finals on Saturday, with President Donald Trump saying that “in the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse.”
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The school’s security system made it a “soft target,” criminal profiler John Kelly said in a comment to Fox News.
This week, Brown, based in Providence, pushed back against some concerns, saying it had 1,200 cameras installed across campus buildings and spaces. But the university also suggested that certain expectations for expansive security measures defy traditional norms for open campus spaces.
“Brown’s security cameras do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory, and office across the 250+ buildings on campus,” Clark said.
“We would hope people understand that college campuses are more like cities than corporate headquarters or a school in a self-contained building with one or a few points of entry. Just like cities and communities across the country, most spaces on campuses do not have guards or gates at every point of access. In the daytime, most buildings on college campuses are open and accessible, while after hours, ID card swipes are required for entry. This is common across the nation and is the case at Brown for many buildings, including academic buildings, the campus center, athletics facilities and many facilities with administrative offices,” he added.
The university’s latest statement came after Mayor Brett Smiley and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters there was a lack of cameras in the Brown building that the gunman was able to access.
“Brown is different than maybe some universities in that it is very much integrated with a residential neighborhood,” Smiley said, adding that the school’s network of cameras couldn’t follow the suspect into the surrounding neighborhood. “This building is on the literal edge of the campus, and the person of interest walked out the door (and) as soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, was no longer on campus.”
Neronha had a tense exchange with reporters on Sunday when one questioned why there weren’t enough cameras at Brown to provide quality surveillance footage of the gunman.
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“There just weren’t a lot of cameras in that Brown building, is the reality,” Neronha said. “I mean, we’re not holding back a video that we think would be useful. And I don’t think I should even have to say it … I don’t know what to tell you, but we’re going to go out and find whatever evidence we can to solve this case as quickly as we can.”
An intensive manhunt continues to capture the suspect, though there could be some movement in the case “over the next day or two,” according to former FBI assistant director for the criminal investigative division Chris Swecker.
“A person like this, who, four years after Covid, is wearing a surgical mask, he’s wearing very bulky clothing, he’s just hanging around in the neighborhood?” Swecker told CNN on Wednesday. “I think there’s a lot to work with here.”
Authorities believe the suspect is a man dressed in all black at the time of the shooting is approximately 5’8” with a stocky build.
Officials on Tuesday released digitally enhanced video and photo evidence showing sharper images of a masked man walking through Providence neighborhoods. And the FBI urged the public to report any tips, offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.
In addition to scrutiny over its’ security system that erupted after the shooting, Brown University has faced criticism from lawmakers such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) for deleting information off its website about a student who has has been speculated to be a suspect.
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“Concerning,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon commented in response to the development. She also called it “Suss” in another post.
A university spokesman admitted to the Washington Examiner that the action was necessary to protect the student’s safety, calling the student a victim of “harmful doxxing activity.”
Associate breaking news editor Peter Cordi contributed to this report.
