Schumer: Recent 'Swatting' Attacks In Capital Region Resulted In Evacuations & Residents Being Told To Stay In Their Apartment For Hours; Incidents Are Costing Police Depts. Thousands Of Dollars, Terrifying Innocent Victims & Even Endangering Lives - Schumer Introduces New Federal Bill To Crack Down On 'Swatting' & Deter Alarming New Crime Trend Threatening Residents & Law Enforcement

Press Release

At the Colonie Police Department, standing alongside police officers dispatched to a recent attack, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced his recently introduced legislation that will crack down on an alarming new nationwide crime trend called "swatting," which is becoming a significant problem in the Capital Region. Schumer explained that "swatting" is an incident in which a phone call is made reporting a fake threat in an effort to have police SWAT teams respond to an unsuspecting resident's home. Schumer said these false alerts are not only terrifying residents, but they are also costing law enforcement thousands of dollars and putting at risk both first responders and innocent bystanders. Because these false threats often precipitate SWAT responses that require the deployment of armed SWAT teams, bomb squads and other police units, "swatting" calls can lead to temporary street closures that result in local business loss, terrifying experiences for residents and bystanders and can cost police departments thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Schumer said that there have been several recent "swatting" attacks in the Capital Region, including two in Colonie where some residents were evacuated while others were told to lock their doors and not leave their home. Schumer said communities are at great risk if nothing is done to stem this scourge of attacks. Schumer therefore discussed legislation he recently introduced that would increase penalties for perpetrators and make criminals pay restitution to police.

"These dangerous actions are not "pranks' at all -- these "swatting' attacks are serious incidents in which our emergency responders use up their time, energy, and resources responding to false threats when they could have been elsewhere protecting the community from real ones. What the perpetrators of these calls see as a practical joke is actually a terrifying experience for innocent bystanders, a business-detractor for local commerce, and a costly crime that forces our local emergency responders to use up thousands of taxpayer dollars on fake alerts. That's why I am pushing legislation that will increase the jail time for "swatting' perpetrators, force them to pay restitution for the cost of investigating fake calls, and I am pushing for legislation that will close the existing loophole on internet phone calls to make disguising your caller ID to law enforcement a crime," said Schumer. "We need to make sure that every time a 9-1-1 dispatcher answers a call that it is a real emergency, and we need to stop this disturbing trend before it is too late and someone gets seriously hurt."

Schumer said that there have been at least two Colonie area "swatting" attacks in recent years and communities will continue to be at great risk if nothing is done to stem this scourge of perpetrators. Schumer said that is why he introduced legislation that would seek to reduce the number of "swatting" attacks. In April 2015, police received a call from a man claiming he was holding his mother hostage and had a bomb in addition to several firearms in a Jodiro Lane apartment. The Colonie Police evacuated several apartments and told many others to lock their doors and stay inside until the situation was resolved. According to the police, several hours later and after 40 personnel had arrived on scene, first responders determined the threat was a hoax. In 2013, the Colonie Police received a call alleging a man had shot his wife and had taken his children hostage. The few dozen police in the station were dispatched to two homes, where the caller said he was holding the children at either a house on Cresthaven Ave or Willoughby Drive. Both homes were swarmed with police and nearby roads were closed for roughly an hour before emergency responders realized the call was a fake.

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