FBI SWAT team attending a drill [Courtesy of FBI]
The new prank is out – it’s not something that a person calls 911 claiming a UFO landing in his backyard, it’s something worse. It’s “swatting”.
Swatting is a hoax which a person makes a prank call real enough to trigger SWAT team deployment. But when the SWAT team arrives at the situation, it turns out to be bogus, left with innocent people frightened to death by SWAT team entry.
Swatting cases increased in recent years. Most of the times, prank caller claims that someone is a making a bomb or planning an immediate terrorist attack. The law enforcers do not have any choice but to storm the suspected house to prevent mass killing just in case if the call is true.
"That there are people out there, whether it's for fun or whether it's to get back at somebody, will be able to utilize the 911 system in a criminal fashion, and be able to what they commonly refer to as SWAT call," Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan explained the situation.
According to Delaware County Representative Pat Meehan, there are at least 400 times of SWAT deployment across U.S. because of swatting. According to an official, every SWAT Deployment costs taxpayers at least U.S$ 10,000.
Mr. Meehan is supporting a new bill to create uniform federal laws against swatting. There are local laws in place, but he claims federal statute is needed to fill in the holes in jurisdiction system.
아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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