Brown University has over 1,200 surveillance cameras. Why that wasn’t enough to capture video of the shooting suspect

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — In March 2021, a Brown University doctoral candidate wrote an op-ed in the school paper criticizing Brown’s increasing use of surveillance cameras and lack of transparency.

“In the span of two decades, Brown University quietly deployed an expansive surveillance apparatus, unbeknownst to many in the community; it’s well past time we critically examined our University’s pervasive surveillance of College Hill,” John Wrenn wrote.

“It is impossible to cross (or even approach) Brown University without being surveilled,” he added. “I encourage you to try.”

The extent of that surveillance coverage is now under scrutiny amid the ongoing search for a gunman who killed two students and wounded nine others last Saturday before disappearing from the scene.

Law enforcement has released a series of videos from nearby homes and vehicles showing what the FBI has called an “unknown suspect,” but none of those appeared to come from Brown’s own surveillance cameras or from the building where the shooting took place. The shortage of visuals has led to sharp questions about surveillance at Brown.

“Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras?” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social just after midnight Wednesday. “There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!”

In fact, Brown University has an “expansive network of security cameras,” with more than 1,200 cameras installed in buildings with both interior and exterior locations, university spokesperson Brian Clark said.

The problem, though, is the shooting took place at the very edge of the university in an older part of a building that has “fewer, if any” cameras, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Tuesday. That left police to rely mainly on videos from the neighboring residential area to try to identify the person of interest.

“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,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.

“It’s part of the reason we keep asking for the community’s help so much, is because even though this occurred on campus, the route of travel and all of the video evidence you’ve seen, other than that very first video, has been video from off campus,” he said.

CNN spoke to several security experts to better understand the growth of Brown’s surveillance system, why its cameras failed to capture the attack or suspect, and the concerns about privacy and academic freedom that are the biggest resistance to their growing use.

“You would think that, ‘Hey it’s a school like Brown, they would have this investment, and they can figure out who this suspect is or at least help in identifying,’” said Glen Kucera, the president of the security company Allied Universal Enhanced Protection Services. “I’ve talked to a number of campuses across the country and some are more thorough in their surveillance system than others. Some have invested in it, and some haven’t.”

How many cameras is enough?

Like many modern institutions, Brown’s use of surveillance cameras has increased dramatically over the years. The university had just 60 surveillance cameras in 2000, a number that rose to 180 by 2008, to 250 by 2011 and then about 800 in 2020.

Brown’s current system of more than 1,200 cameras is especially focused on high-traffic areas like streets, sidewalks and walkways, as well as building entry and exit points, the university spokesperson said. But they do not cover every hallway, classroom, lab and office on campus, which boasts about 250 buildings.

The spokesperson declined to explain where the cameras are located, citing security reasons.

“We have and will continue to provide investigators with any and all security camera footage they need, including from the engineering complex of three connected buildings that includes Barus & Holley, the Engineering Research Center and Prince Lab,” he wrote.

Kucera said the total of 1,200 cameras was a “big number,” but the more important question is how and where they were positioned.

“If they’re not in the right place and catching all the movements and each individual square inch of that campus, then unfortunately we have an incident like this,” he said, with little to no useful video.

Rob Kilfoyle, the president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, similarly said 1,200 surveillance cameras was a “reasonable” amount for a school of Brown’s size. Cameras are great for investigations, both in the moment and after the fact, but they can’t solve everything on their own.

“If somebody is disguised or puts their head down, and you don’t get a good facial shot, it’s difficult,” he said.

In contrast, Pat Brosnan, a security consultant and former NYPD detective, said 1,200 cameras was “almost non-existent” coverage given Brown’s campus area of 146 acres. A Walmart superstore, much smaller by comparison, has about 800 cameras, he said.

“You have a mass murderer on the loose, both unidentified and un-apprehended,” he said. “Had there been better cameras, more cameras, more informing cameras, more pragmatic placement of cameras … I think the probability of him being in leg irons (Wednesday) morning or (Tuesday) morning would exponentially grow.”

Concerns about privacy

As Brown’s use of surveillance cameras has grown over the years, civil rights advocates worried about privacy have pushed back.

That concern about privacy is the biggest challenge to the use of surveillance cameras on campus, Kilfoyle said. While there may be cameras in common areas or at entry-exit points, it’s rare to have cameras in classrooms or labs because they can be seen as stifling open debate and academic freedom.

“We want to create dialogue, we want free and fair conversations, and you don’t want to feel like you’re under the eye of ‘Big Brother’ the whole time,” he said.

Brosnan, who was critical of Brown’s security policy, said the resistance to cameras on college campuses is largely driven by an anti-surveillance ideology rather than cost considerations.

“(It’s) exactly the opposite of what, say, retailers, airports, major stadiums, what they do,” he said. “They figured this out a long time ago. They stopped debating the philosophy and started designing for reality.”

Whether current students still agree with that surveillance skepticism may now be open for question.

“There certainly needs to be more cameras,” Talib Reddick, president of Brown University’s Undergraduate Council of Students, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. “It’s really unfortunate that there weren’t cameras there and that we haven’t been able to clearly see his face.”

Brown student Joe McGonagle told CNN he believes the school should have had cameras in all parts of the Barus and Holley building, not just the newer areas, and that he was shocked there was not more surveillance.

“I’ve been there multiple times … the fact that there weren’t cameras there actually shocked me,” he said.

The cost of updating old buildings

Another key drawback of setting up a large surveillance video system is cost. Maintaining the cameras, hiring personnel, setting up servers for data storage, project management and design – they can all add up.

“Generally speaking, it is an expensive security feature to install,” Kilfoyle said.

“Everybody’s got a budget,” Kucera said.

Older buildings can be particularly expensive to retrofit for surveillance cameras, Kilfoyle said. They may contain asbestos, which requires remediation, or the walls may be made of harder material like cinderblock, making them more difficult to install electrical wires.

“It’s not insurmountable but it’s difficult,” Kilfoyle said. “Older buildings are a challenge for sure.”

The Barus and Holley building, where the shooting took place, is a seven-story, 200,000-square-foot that was built in 1965 and houses the School of Engineering and Physics Department. The building was upgraded in 2013 but its “infrastructure remains largely un-renovated,” Brown said on its facilities website.

Still, questions about cost may be less of an issue for an institution like Brown, with an endowment of $8 billion.

“They can afford the cameras,” Brosnan said.

Brown University officials on Wednesday defended the school’s security features and procedures.

“Just like cities and communities across the country, most spaces on campuses do not have guards or gates at every point of access,” Clark, the university spokesperson, said in an email to reporters. He noted that during the daytime, most buildings on campus are open and accessible, as “is common across the nation.”

Overall, the security experts emphasized how important video is in solving open cases – and perhaps even deterring them from happening in the first place.

“They’re really a storyteller in many ways. They’re great in investigations and dealing with issues in the moment if they’re being monitored,” Kilfoyle said. “You can’t have a police officer or security officer at every corner of campus, so the cameras provide an extra layer of eyes, so to speak, and if something does happen, then the cameras can be quickly reviewed to gather evidence and documentation of incidents.”

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CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo, Maureen Chowdhury, Michelle Watson, Jeff Winter and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.