FBI Launches Swatting Database as Swatting Crimes Rise
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a new database to help law enforcement crack down on swatting, which is a crime that is becoming more prevalent across the country.
Swatting is when a criminal places a prank call, falsely claiming there is a dangerous person, kidnapping, or mass shooting at a home or business, hoping to fool police into responding with force, including the swat team.
The crime is on the national radar after celebrities including Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, and Rihanna were victims of swatting incidents. Universities, including Florida, Clemson, Rutgers, Oklahoma, and Middlebury College were also targeted by swatters in April.
In March, dozens of lower schools were targeted.
The new database will allow law enforcement agencies across the nation to share information on swatting crimes.
So farm 129 incidents have been tracked and logged since the database launch in May 2023.
The new database will allow law enforcement to “get that common picture of what’s going on across our nation so we can learn from that,” Chief Scott Schubert of the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters told NBC News.
There was no centralized database to track swatting incidents until now, so the exact number of such incidents is unknown. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) estimates there were 1,000 such incidents in 2019. Each incident costs a community approximately $10,000.
“Swatting wastes resources and puts people in danger. These hoaxes take first responders away from actual emergencies, potentially endangering the safety of others,” the ADL said in a statement.
It’s also getting harder to track the criminals behind the prank phone calls, with the rise of technology that can mask a caller’s real voice, phone number, or IP address.
Prosecuting such cases remains a challenge. Currently, there is no specific law criminalizing swatting in the U.S., according to Associate Professor Lauren Shapiro of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“Without a statute in place, there’s no designated resources or training for investigating swatting incidents,” Shapiro told NBC News. “And the 911 dispatchers do not have the resources and training they need to differentiate between actual emergencies and false reports.”