It was summed up best as “sick and cruel.”
On March 30 — just six days after six people, including three students, were shot and killed inside a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee — a text message was sent to Lockport School District staff reporting an active shooter in the high school.
It of course prompted the lockdown of the school and an immediate response from local law enforcement. It also prompted a whole lot of panic, turmoil and worry for students and their families, school staff and members of law enforcement as news of the lockdown spread across the community.
Fortunately for all involved, the report was later determined to be part of a larger series of “swatting” incidents that took place on the same day at schools across New York. “Swatting” involves a phone call or false report being made to unsuspecting residents’ homes, schools or other public places in order to evoke a police or SWAT team response.
In a press conference in Niagara County days after the statewide swatting incidents, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described the timing as “sick and cruel.”
Sadly it appears to be a growing trend. Since May, the FBI has logged more than 130 instances of swatting across the country.
Who could take pleasure in something like this? We’re not talking prank calls and pulling fire alarms here. Falsely reporting a shooting incident in this day and age creates a terrifying and stressful situation for all involved. It’s just sick.
And it puts law enforcement in a very tough spot. Beau Duffy, director of Public Information for the New York State Police, said agencies can only treat calls of a shooting threat one way.
“If we get the call about a possible shooter, we’re going to respond to it. Period,” Duffy said.
As for the swatters, Duffy added, “We’ll investigate them until we can determine who did them and arrest them.”
There’s good news for police on that front — the FBI announced late last week that it is at the forefront of an effort to help police nationwide deal with such false reports. The FBI’s new National Swatting Virtual Command Center (VCC) will facilitate information sharing between police departments and law enforcement agencies on swatting incidents.
Schumer said last week that this is the first time the federal government has created a centralized command center for law enforcement agencies across the country to exchange, track and share information related to swatting incidents. He called it a “key step” toward being able to better understand the nature and prevalence of these crimes.
We’re not so concerned with trying to understand the nature of the calls, but if it helps catch whoever was responsible for what happened at LHS in March, we’re all for it.
Schumer said he’s confident creation of the database will help identify the commonalities between the crimes and will provide necessary information to law enforcement to be better able to apprehend individuals who are involved in swatting.
We certainly hope so, it’s well past time law enforcement was able to do some “swatting” of its own.