U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls for Federal action on “swatting” calls while visiting Lockport (April 5, 2023)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling for Federal action following a slew of “swatting” calls to schools in New York State over the past week.
Schumer said 36 of these “swatting” calls falsely reporting a mass shooting resulted in police responding to 226 schools across the state last week. At a stop in Lockport, one of the school districts affected by a “swatting” call, he said he called and had written to the Federal Bureau of Investigations about the issue.
Schumer also announced a three-point plan that he says will combat these threats that includes:
– Calling on the FBI for a full investigation and to hold those involved accountable
– Pushing for $10 million to go toward more federal resources to help tackle swatting
– Asking that the FBI track swatting as its own crime
“Swatting” has been a growing trend in recent years in which a phone call or false report is made to unsuspecting resident’s home, a school, or other public place in order to evoke a police or SWAT team response. Reports indicate that this string of ‘swatting’ hoaxes may have come from outside the U.S.
Schumer said these false alerts are not only terrifying for the victims, but they can also cost law enforcement thousands of dollars, delay response to actual emergencies, and have even resulted in injury or death of innocent bystanders. In 2014, on Long Island, one fake swatting bomb threat ended up costing police nearly $100,000 dollars.
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