February 28, 2026

A few recent stories about technology, high-profile incidents in the news, and crime during sporting events

PERF members,

This week I’ll call your attention to a few recent news stories I found interesting.

OpenAI chose not to alert Canadian authorities about a potential shooting threat

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that when an 18-year-old had alarming interactions with OpenAI’s ChatGPT service last summer, the company considered informing Canadian law enforcement but then decided not to do so. Two weeks ago, that teenager, Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed eight people and injured 25 in a mass shooting at a school in rural British Columbia.

“While using ChatGPT last June, Van Rootselaar described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Journal reports. “Her posts, flagged by an automated review system, alarmed employees at OpenAI. Internally, about a dozen staffers debated whether to take action on Van Rootselaar’s posts. Some employees interpreted Van Rootselaar’s writings as an indication of potential real-world violence, and urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about her behavior, the people familiar with the matter said. OpenAI leaders ultimately decided not to contact authorities.”

I don’t see this as a particularly complicated ethical dilemma—I think OpenAI clearly should’ve alerted Canadian law enforcement—but it highlights the challenge that technology companies will face when trying to sort through the multitude of threats on their platforms. In an article we included in yesterday’s PERF Daily Clips, the New York Times considered the circumstances in which technology companies should alert authorities about potential threats. I hope law enforcement works closely with these companies to determine criteria for assessing threats and develop protocols for companies to share legitimate concerns with police.

It may not have made a difference in this case, as Van Rootselaar was already known to local law enforcement. “They interacted with her through numerous visits to handle mental-health concerns at the residence where she lived with her mother and younger siblings,” the Wall Street Journal reportsin a separate article. “More than once, police said, Van Rootselaar was apprehended for assessment under the province’s mental-health law. But she always returned home. At one point, guns being kept in the residence were taken by police and later given back when someone living there petitioned for them.”

Both OpenAI and local law enforcement were aware of the threat, which I think shows that identifying threats will be much easier than determining what to do about them.

Study of smartphone use and traffic fatalities

In a study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham, Michael Liu, and Anupam B. Jena evaluated the effect of smartphone use on traffic fatalities. Using the release of major music albums to study a time when smartphone use increases, the authors find “that music streaming—an indicator for smartphone use, where streaming most often occurs—sharply increases, by nearly 40 percent, on dates of major music album releases, while U.S. traffic fatalities increase by nearly 15 percent on those same days.”

Though PERF’s recent report on traffic enforcement primarily focused on the post-2020 spike in fatalities, we also touched on smartphone usage as a possible explanation for the longer-term rise in traffic deaths. This new study is a reminder that enforcing laws against smartphone use is likely to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities, and I’m interested to see how increased traffic camera use might help with enforcement.

Which crime issues should we worry about during major sporting events?

University of Miami Professor and former Bureau of Justice Statistics Director Alex Piquero wrote a column for Florida Politics about his research on crime trends around major sporting events.

“By and large, while there are slight increases in certain types of crime—mainly auto theft in parking lots—the presence of a sporting event does not cause a significant increase in crime, especially violent and sex-oriented offenses,” Piquero writes. “Our summary of research on soccer (or fútbol) matches in Europe also indicates that, while there may be some instances of unruly fan behavior—largely attributable to excessive alcohol use, which compromises decision-making—areas around and within the stadium are safe for fans and those who staff these events.”

With the World Cup coming up, law enforcement officials are understandably concerned about a range of potential threats, including drones, terrorism, and rowdy fan behavior. I think Piquero’s column highlights some of the data that police should look to when forecasting which issues may arise during the World Cup and other sporting events.

When online investigators set their sights on innocent people

Finally, the New York Times published an article about Dominic Evans, an Arizona elementary school teacher who happens to be in a band with Today host Savannah Guthrie’s brother-in-law. As you’re probably aware, Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted from her home outside Tucson four weeks ago. Evans’s distant connection to the Guthries and his arrest for a minor crime nearly 30 years ago were enough for online sleuths to accuse him of kidnapping Nancy Guthrie, and the allegations have upended his family’s life.

“The accusations were levied online, but they have become a real-life nightmare for Mr. Evans and his wife,” the Times reports. “They hid in their bedroom with the lights off that night, too frightened to pick up their son from his grandmother’s house, for fear of being followed. Days later, another swarm of journalists, livestreamers and gawkers photographed the family’s home and knocked on their neighbors’ doors.”

I see this as a reminder that any law enforcement crisis communications strategy must include a plan for proactively addressing misinformation. It may sometimes be impossible to tamp down all online rumors, but police should do everything they can to prevent the personal distress and public safety threats that can occur when an online mob wrongly accuses someone of a crime.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,

Chuck