Swatting is the act of reporting fake threats to emergency responders to elicit a large law enforcement response. Many industries have repeatedly fallen victim to these calls, including K-12 schools. These false threats not only suck up and divert precious resources but they leave room for real dangers.
The day after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a Florida police officer shot himself in the leg inside a school while responding to a false shooting report. During the response to the 2019 shooting at Colorado’s STEM School Highlands Ranch, a school security officer shot at a police officer and missed, striking a student. This past May, a police officer accidentally discharged his firearm during a swatting incident at a Massachusetts high school, triggering an even larger police response.
So, how common are swatting threats? The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) estimates there were at least 1,000 swatting incidents in 2019. Perhaps more shocking is a 2023 survey from the ADL that found 11% of teens and 5% of adults say they experienced swatting in their lifetime.
Hal Berghel, a computer science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, wrote in a March 2023 report that swatting has become so common that several subclasses have already been defined, including celebrity swatting, gamer swatting, partisan swatting, and hate swatting. Some perpetrators have targeted multiple subclasses with swatting threats, including a 17-year-old boy who was arrested in Jan. 2024 for allegedly calling police to say he was entering the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Florida to carry out a mass shooting. The teen referenced Satanism and somehow simulated gunfire. The same boy is also accused of making hundreds of swatting threats against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), homes of FBI agents, and government offices.
In April 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) finally called on the FBI to track these incidents more closely and work to prevent them. The following month, the FBI launched a national online database to help facilitate information-sharing between hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies. Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services said these efforts will provide the FBI with “a common operating picture of what’s going on across the country.”
Amy Rock Editorial, LLC 