Coded databases
Researchers assemble case histories and variables from records, interviews, public documents, media, and other sources to study patterns across defined incident types.
GVRP FIELD LESSON · MINNESOTA RESEARCH AND CRISIS RESPONSE
Data should build off-ramps. Not prediction scores.
Hamline University’s Violence Prevention Project Research Center turns historical evidence into public education and professional training. Saint Paul Public Schools describes a separate, human-led CARE Team and R-Model pilot. Neither is a machine that predicts who will attack.
Conceptual editorial image—not Hamline University, The Violence Project, Saint Paul Public Schools, CBS News, 60 Minutes, or a GVRP partnership.
Research and a pilot—not predictive technology.
The public record supports historical databases, dashboards, education, training, human-reviewed reporting, and a Saint Paul crisis-response pilot. It does not support claims of AI surveillance, individual dangerousness scoring, or a proven reduction in school shootings.
WHAT THE MARCH 2026 60 MINUTES REPORT FOUND NOTEWORTHY
Warning communication matters only if a capable system receives it.
The CBS report featured researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley and their work on pathways to mass violence. CBS reported their finding that more than 90% of school mass shooters in the studied dataset communicated plans online or in person before attacking.
The program’s public lesson was not that one warning sign identifies a future shooter. It was that schools need teams that communicate, mental-health and crisis capacity, suicide-prevention skills, an accessible route for concerns, and the ability to connect a student with support and continue following up.
A reported percentage from a defined historical dataset is not an individual prediction rule. Communicated intent should be taken seriously and routed to qualified humans, while context, fairness, support, and due process remain essential.
WHAT THE TECHNOLOGY ACTUALLY DOES
Organize evidence. Reduce friction. Support human judgment.
Dashboards and controlled datasets
Interactive tools and dataset access make findings explorable while preserving methodology and usage boundaries.
Ask the historical data
An AI-assisted query interface helps people explore the research. The center identifies the answers as AI-generated and directs researchers to underlying data for citation.
Reporting to responsible owners
Saint Paul’s public materials describe reports reviewed by the district’s Emergency Communication Center and routed through trained human systems—not automated accusation.
THE SAINT PAUL HUMAN-RESPONSE LAYER
Ready. Respond. Refer. Revisit.
Ready
Establish trained teams, shared protocols, and the capacity to respond before a crisis arrives.
Respond
De-escalate, stabilize, safeguard, and understand the immediate situation through trained human interaction.
Refer
Connect the student to appropriate services and create an individualized support plan.
Revisit
Follow up instead of treating a referral as the end of the responsibility.
Essential distinction: noticeable behavior change is not automatically threatening behavior. The model emphasizes changes from a person’s own baseline, context, support, and qualified human judgment.
THE GVRP TAKEAWAY
Build connective infrastructure without building a surveillance machine.
GVRP proposes to connect plain-language education, audience-specific pathways, safe routing, source governance, stakeholder maps, implementation checklists, privacy and safeguarding controls, and measurable local learning.
Technology can make sources traceable, education accessible, public pathways understandable, revisions versioned, and approved routing easier. It should not profile a population, scrape people into watchlists, assign danger scores, substitute AI for professional assessment, or publish allegations.
The Minnesota work is an independent case example. GVRP has no affiliation, endorsement, sponsorship, partnership, data license, or operational relationship with Hamline University, the Violence Prevention Project Research Center, The Violence Project, Saint Paul Public Schools, CBS News, or 60 Minutes.
READ THE INDEPENDENT SOURCES
Follow the work to its owners.
VPPRC research
Historical datasets, dashboards, downloads, and mass-violence research.
Open Hamline research page →Training and public education
School and workplace training, webinars, and data-driven prevention education.
Open Hamline training page →Saint Paul CARE Team
The district’s multidisciplinary crisis-response system and public materials.
Open CARE Team page →R-Model
Ready, Respond, Refer, and Revisit as described by Saint Paul Public Schools.
Open R-Model page →