https://americancop.com/swatting-ways-to-combat-this-technology-based-phenomenon/
The earliest recorded case of swatting happened in 2002.
In a 2017 swatting incident involving a dispute over a video game, a man was shot and killed by police after exiting his home. The caller had falsely reported a homicide and hostage situation. One perpetrator was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and a second was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
A Wisconsin man and his family have been swatted more than 40 times after he said in an offhand Twitter post in 2018 that he didn’t think that comedian Norm Macdonald was funny.
In 2020, a Tennessee man died of a heart attack during a police response to his home for a fraudulent report of a shooting.
In mid-December 2023, a spree of swatting incidents at more than 200 schools and Jewish synagogues occurred that the FBI believes was a coordinated effort by foreign actors.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee whose home was swatted in December of 2023, recently introduced legislation to prohibit “swatting” hoaxes and impose severe penalties, up to a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
In addition to individual victims, swatting calls have impacted schools, hospitals, houses of worship, and shopping malls across the nation.
Swatting incidents are a huge drain on law enforcement resources while compromising resource availability to respond to actual crimes. Hoax swatting reports of school or church shootings impact multiple area public safety agencies for a significant period of time.
The FBI recently arrested a California teenager who was allegedly running a swatting-for-hire scheme and was responsible for hundreds of swatting calls throughout the county.
Thanks for the information. Thanks for the thread.