Representative Katherine Clark has introduced a new bill in the United States Congress to address the issue of swatting, the act of deceiving an emergency service into visiting a particular location. The term is derived from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), a militarized police unit dispatched to dangerous crime scenes, though the act of swatting can range in severity from dispatching a SWAT team, prompting an evacuation, or sending a single emergency vehicle to a particular location. 

Clark’s “Interstate Swatting Hoax Act” attempts to address the legal loopholes that currently exist: “While federal law prohibits using telecommunications system to falsely report a bomb threat hoax or a terrorist attack, falsely reporting other emergency situations is not currently prohibited.” The act would address this loophole “by prohibiting the use of the interstate telecommunications system to knowingly transmit false information with the intent to cause an emergency law enforcement response.” 

The act of swatting has become more popular as an extension of cyberbullying and online harassment. Techniques for caller ID spoofing, phone phreaking, and other telecommunications hacks have facilitated the practice, particularly from geographically distant perpetrators. While the act of making false reports to emergency services is already punishable in the United States, the laws invoked to punish offenders are indirectly related to the crime, such as conspiracy, obstruction of justice, or public mischief. Clark’s bill proposes to adjudicate jail time based on the severity of the swatting incident and includes provisions for the reimbursement of the affected emergency service organizations.  

According to Clark’s website, “The FBI estimates 400 swatting attacks occur every year. Some attacks, however, have been reported to cost local law enforcement agencies as much as $100,000.”