Our local dispatch center has actually trained to sniff out SWATTING prank calls before the cops get there. I’ve heard them dispatch cops to supposed murder calls and start advising the officers about inconsistencies in the stories being told and lack of prior calls to the residence.
It usually ends with the cops saying, “We have talked to the resident and done a voluntary walk through with nothing found.”
Well trained dispatchers will help reduce this problem.
Exactly - the point is not to get tricked in the first dang place. Here in this county they have procedures with dispatchers and the LEOs to guard against that. There's been attempts at swatting but to my knowledge none of them have succeeded. The most memorable one was the time a swatter phoned one in while the intended victim was out talking to a deputy on his own front porch. Whoopsies - yeah, that perpetrator got swatted right back.
Those ding-a-lings at the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office were utterly incompetent. They just don't have an egg on their faces but an entire chicken farm worth.