VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Calling in a fake emergency to get the SWAT Team to swarm someone’s home is already against the law, but it’s becoming harder to track.
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While new legislation would increase penalties for swatting, local law enforcement officials say more needs to be done to track those who make the calls.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood has always taken a no-nonsense approach when it comes to arresting people involved in these so-called swatting calls. He is all for the proposed legislation, but worries it won’t be enough.
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“Let’s get it signed into law, but I really think we need to crack down more on the servers that encrypt these things and go after the people that need to be held accountable,” Chitwood said.
Sending out the SWAT team costs tens of thousands of dollars and ties up vital resources, often for hours.
“It puts fear in the homes of the people who are being swatted,” Chitwood said. “It puts law enforcement and first responders at risk.”
The new federal legislation would create stricter penalties for people who engage in swatting calls, which have led to serious injuries, or even death.
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Chitwood adds that technology has become so advanced now that it’s basically impossible for law enforcement to arrest every caller.
“Technology is so far advanced that you’re not ever going to catch up to make all the arrests, and I know that first-hand,” Chitwood said. “Things were getting encrypted in Iran, Russia and Mexico and bouncing off of different servers.”
It’s a point echoed by Chris Pearson, CEO of Cybersecurity firm BlackCloak.
“You need a technological response,” Pearson said. “There needs to be some way where folks are able to nullify these different attacks at both the phone carrier level, at the VOIP level, or actually in the 911 call centers so that we can go ahead and mitigate the chances of these causing real harm.
Fortunately, Chitwood says the calls aren’t coming in as often as they were last year when he arrested four people for swatting.
“It’s all cyclical,” Chitwood said. “When something happens in society that somebody sitting in front of their computer doesn’t like, it starts itself over again.”
If passed, a person who violates the law could face up to 20 years in prison if someone is seriously hurt because of a swatting attack.
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