The FBI is tracking “swatting” incidents in a national database as the dangerous form of prank call becomes more common, the bureau revealed Thursday.
Swatting incidents take place when a person calls the police claiming there is a dangerous person, kidnapping or a mass shooting at a house, hoping for police to respond in force.
The incidents have most commonly targeted internet celebrities and live streamers, but musicians like Rihanna and Justin Bieber have also been victims of swatting. Earlier this year, swatting incidents also became more common at schools.
“From my perspective, this is a form of terrorism,” former FBI intelligence analyst Jennifer Doebler told NewsNation in March. Dozens of schools were targeted with hoax active shooter threats in a single week in March.
Following that string of false calls, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the FBI to track the incidents more closely and work to prevent them.
“These swatting attacks are dangerous, disturbing and downright terrifying for our Western New York students, teachers and parents. We need all federal hands on deck to support local law enforcement and hold perpetrators of these disturbing hoax calls accountable, which is why I personally called the FBI to say this issue needs to be a top priority and I am pushing for more funding and data to counter unique threats like this,” Schumer said in April.
In one swatting incident at Harvard University this year, a phone call claimed that four students had taken a woman hostage. Campus police burst into the students’ house just after 4 a.m., aimed their rifles at the students and temporarily apprehended them.
In 2021, a 60-year-old man from Tennessee died of a heart attack as police raided his house in a swatting attack. An 18-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison for the threat.
Recent advances in technology, including the use of artificial intelligence, have made it more difficult to catch people who commit swatting. Callers can obscure their computer IP addresses and fake voices to mask their identities.
There has been no centralized database to track swatting incidents until now, so the exact number of occurrences is unknown. The Anti-Defamation League estimated there were 1,000 swatting incidents in 2019.
“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.
“These online threats are serious; they can and have led to violence. Swatting puts the targets, responding officers, and other community members in harm’s way and sometimes results in their deaths.”
The new FBI database has already tracked 129 swatting incidents since the start of May, according to a statement from the agency.