Providence Hires $95K Consultant to Review City’s Response to Brown Shooting

Providence Hires $95K Consultant to Review City’s Response to Brown Shooting

The City of Providence has announced it has retained the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to conduct a review of the city’s response to the December 13, 2025, shooting at Brown University, “the investigation that followed, and the city’s communication with the public.”

Two students were killed, and nine were injured in the shooting on Saturday, December 13, 2025. The shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, went on to kill an MIT professor before shooting himself dead the following Tuesday; law enforcement only located his deceased body that Thursday.

On December 24, GoLocal published "What Went Wrong in Hunt for Brown Mass Shooter" - read here.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

PERF, a national nonprofit, conducts reviews of police departments around the country; recent PERF contracts have included looking at “strengthening homicide investigations in the Chicago Police Department” and a use-of-force investigation in Akron, Ohio. 

At a 2023 PERF meeting, "one hotly debated topic during the meeting was whether officers should be allowed to review  body camera footage of critical incidents, such as officer-involved shootings and in-custody  deaths, before making a statement about the incident."

"Many people wrestled with this issue a decade ago, and it remains a point of contention today...[this report] lays out the different approaches to this issue and presents our new recommendation that agencies require officers to provide a 'perceptual' statement before viewing body camera footage but then provide a more detailed statement after viewing it, to offer clarifications they feel are appropriate," said PERF. 

Former Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman worked closely with PERF, including speaking on leadership and graduating from the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute.

 

PERF in Providence

According to Smiley’s office, under the $95,000 agreement, PERF will: 
 
* Review and synthesize all relevant after-action reports from Providence Police, Fire/EMS, Communications, and the Providence Emergency Management Agency (PEMA). 
* Conduct confidential interviews with willing stakeholders to assess strengths, challenges, and gaps in investigative procedures, equipment, technology, coordination, and communications. 
* Facilitate a comprehensive after-action discussion in Providence, led by PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler, convening representatives from the Mayor’s Office, Mayor’s Communications Office, Providence Police, Providence Fire/EMS, PEMA, Brown University, Rhode Island State Police, Brown University Department of Public Safety, and other partner agencies. 
 
“At a minimum, the review will examine equipment and technology (including the City’s Real Time Crime Center and tools such as license plate readers, AI-enabled technologies, cameras, drones, DNA and gunshot detection systems), inter-agency coordination, investigative processes and public communications,” said the Smiley administration. 

“The Providence community deserves an independent, third-party review to carefully assess the response to this tragic incident,” said Smiley. “Acts of violence like this leave deep and lasting impacts, not only on the victims and their loved ones, but on the entire community. The devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket is a painful reminder of how deeply these moments affect families, neighborhoods and entire cities. It also strengthens our resolve to examine our own response with honesty and transparency."

"This process is focused on accountability and learning —identifying what worked well and where we must improve in training, tools, tactics, and technology," he added. "We are committed to releasing the full report once it is complete and to continuing to earn the community’s trust.”