Schumer: 'Swatting' Attacks On Dramatic Rise Across Hudson Valley -- Recent Attack Caused A School To Go On Lockdown, And 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 Eastchester Town Hall & Police Station, standing alongside police officers dispatched to a recent attack, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced his recently introduced legislation that will crack down on an alarming new nationwide crime trend called "swatting," which has recently emerged as a problem in Westchester and the Hudson Valley. Schumer explained that "swatting" is an incident in which a fake phone call is made 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 departments 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 often lead to temporary street closures that result in local business loss, terrifying experiences for residents and bystanders who fall victim to the attacks, and can cost police departments thousands of taxpayer dollars. Schumer said that there have been four recent "swatting" attacks in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, including one incident that caused a school to go on lockdown. 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. Additionally, Schumer is pushing legislation that would close a loophole in federal law and make it illegal for these wrongdoers to evade the law by disguising their identity by making "swatting" calls through Internet platforms like Skype.

"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 four Lower Hudson Valley "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, local police and SWAT teams flooded the Eastchester neighborhood at 1 Joyce Road when a caller reportedly told authorities that he had stabbed his girlfriend and was holding her family hostage inside the home. The surrounding community was blocked off for roughly three hours as police officers from several surrounding police departments, including Eastchester, Greenburgh, New Rochelle, Bronxville, Pelham and Tuckahoe, reported to the scene of the alleged crime. SWAT teams from Eastchester, Bronxville, Pelham and Tuckahoe were also dispatched, in addition to the Westchester County helicopter that landed at a neighboring school to help the potential victims. Once these units descended upon and entered the home, they realized there was no imminent threat. Schumer said local police officers reported that the emergency response, in addition to the SWAT team's dispatching, cost the department time and money when they could have been responding to other crimes and emergencies.

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