Michael H. Keller

Michael H. Keller is an investigative reporter at The New York Times who combines traditional reporting with computer programming and data analysis to expose hidden risks at the intersection of technology, automobiles and public safety. His work focuses on how modern vehicles, digital platforms and algorithmic systems affect safety, privacy and the criminal justice system. He gravitates toward projects that pair large data sets and technical evidence with detailed human stories.

The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s

Keller’s recent work on giant trucks and S.U.V.s defines his current focus on automobiles and safety.

In “The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s,” he leads a multi-reporter investigation into how the boom in taller, heavier pickups and S.U.V.s has changed what happens when a person is struck. He and his colleagues analyze federal and industry records, including detailed vehicle dimensions, and use crash tests, 3-D visibility scans and real-world reconstructions to show how rising hood heights and growing blind zones translate directly into more pedestrian deaths.

The reporting quantifies how design changes in the vehicle fleet have added thousands of fatalities over recent years and isolates specific features, such as high hoods and large front-end blind spots, as key drivers of risk. Keller’s role is to turn technical findings into clear narrative, explaining how incremental changes in size and shape create lethal outcomes on the street. A companion video project, “The Rise of Deadly Trucks and S.U.V.s,” extends the work into visual form, showing how he uses tests and simulations to make complex safety issues accessible to a broad audience.

Across this coverage he treats automobiles not as consumer products but as moving infrastructure whose design and regulation belong in investigative reporting. He connects vehicle engineering, crash data and regulatory decisions to everyday environments like crosswalks and school zones, making his automobile beat fundamentally about public safety and accountability rather than lifestyle.

An Explosion in Online Child Sex Abuse

Keller’s investigations into online child sexual abuse show the same blend of large-scale data work and intimate reporting.

In coverage of the explosion in online child sex abuse imagery, he documents how technology companies report tens of millions of illegal images and videos each year and how the system charged with stopping their spread struggles to keep up. He travels to speak directly with young survivors of abuse and places their experiences inside a larger picture of technical tools, reporting rules and enforcement gaps.

His more recent work on child sexual abuse material persisting on major social platforms despite public pledges to remove it continues this line. He examines how platform policies, moderation systems and business incentives allow such content to remain online, and he connects those failures to the individuals harmed by them.

The pattern in this coverage is clear: Keller uses numbers and systems analysis to establish scale, then returns to the personal stories that show what those failures mean in practice.

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night

Keller’s technology reporting often starts with datasets few others have assembled. In work such as “Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night,” he and his colleagues analyze a database containing hundreds of millions of location records to reveal how smartphone apps track people’s movements throughout their daily lives. He shows how companies collect and sell location data, how that data can be reidentified, and how it exposes intimate details about work, home and relationships.

Earlier projects on the business of selling location data and the ecosystem of fake YouTube views share the same structure. He builds or adapts software tools to scrape or process large datasets, then uses those tools to map hidden markets around surveillance and manipulation.

Keller also publishes free software and guides to help others analyze and visualize data, extending his reporting practice into the broader field of data journalism. Within the investigations team, his stated beat includes artificial intelligence, algorithms, robots and technology, and he approaches automobiles as one more technology system whose design and data must be examined.

Policing in America

Keller’s policing coverage centers on how data and documents can explain why officers avoid accountability.

Over nearly two years, he reports on policing in America in a series that includes stories about the power of police unions, fatal traffic stops and deaths in police custody. He interviews dozens of people for individual articles and works with large datasets on stops, use of force and disciplinary records to show how formal rules and informal practices shield officers from consequences.

These investigations have received major national recognition and illustrate his method across subjects. He studies institutions that control safety and freedom, collects evidence from records and databases, and then uses narrative reporting to show how those systems function for the people inside them. Taken together with his work on oversized vehicles, location tracking and online abuse, his policing coverage rounds out a portfolio where technology, automobiles and the justice system form one continuous terrain.

Across beats, Keller’s distinguishing trait is his reliance on data and custom software to support deeply reported narrative investigations. Whether he is examining giant trucks and S.U.V.s, tracking location data, documenting online child sex abuse or analyzing police traffic stops, he treats technical detail as central evidence rather than background.

His automobile coverage sits within this broader frame, focusing on how design choices, data and regulation around vehicles affect safety and who pays the price when those systems fail.