“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”
“I’ve shot my entire family, and I’ll kill anyone that tries to stop me, even the cops and firefighters. I have explosives. Don’t come near my house.”
The assumption is that any dispatcher who is on the other end of this call immediately would activate SWAT, the bomb squad, fire and EMS. However, something is missing in the caller’s voice that you, the reader, can’t detect: urgency.
As if the world of EMS isn’t crazy enough, a relatively new phenomenon that often stems from angry video gamer players has made its way into fire departments, police departments, and dispatch centers across the United States and Canada.
Swatting is the act of making a fake call to 9-1-1 to bring a large number of armed police and first responders to a targeted location.
Considered a prank, swatting might have real life consequences to unsuspecting victims and first responders.
Incite mass chaos
Never heard of swatting? Neither had I until recently, when a neighboring department was dispatched to an armed and barricaded subject. The dispatchers noticed that something wasn’t right and vocalized to responding units that the call might be suspicious in nature and likely was a swatting incident.
Nicole Lamela of DU-COMM, which is a dispatch center that serves 44 agencies in DuPage County, IL, tells Firehouse Magazine, “Our folks basically take the info and don’t make the assumption that it’s fake. We don’t judge the integrity of the caller.”
However, Lamela explains that usually when a suspicious call comes in you can tell.
“You can hear it in their voice,” Lamela says.
In today’s technologically advanced environment, it isn’t as easy as tracking down the number that made the call, Lamela explains.
“So, if someone wanted to call 9-1-1, you could get a completely fake phone number and an address. They [swatters] are now blocking their number and calling the police and saying they have an emergency,” she says.
Swatters disguise themselves using techniques that include caller ID spoofing, by which they utilize software to make it appear as though they are a local caller, when, in fact, they could be anywhere in the world.
From bomb threats to mass shooters, the common theme is to incite mass chaos.
Lamela says that gaming consoles make swatting easy. You can call from any device that has an IP (Internet Protocol) address.
Protection?
In a recent swatting event, Germantown, WI, police responded to a call for multiple people being shot in a restaurant. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that, before it was deemed a swatting call, an ambulance box alarm was dispatched for the possible mass casualty. It later was determined that the call originated from Rhode Island.
In another swatting incident, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Hagerstown, MD, reported that deputies were dispatched to a property with reports of two people having been shot and one threatening suicide.
This begs the question, before responding units rush in, what can first responders do to better protect themselves?
Communication at the street level can bring about awareness so that change through updated or amended protocols can happen.
Lamela, who is deputy director of operations at DU-COMM agrees, citing that discussions at the agency often center on new issues, including swatting. However, at DU-COMM, nothing official has been disseminated in the form of a directive.
Lamela says that during shift roll calls, audio is reviewed to highlight commonalities when it comes to swatting incidents.
“Every time we see a call, we always play it for our folks. The more exposure to it, the better you understand it,” she explains.
When a 9-1-1 call is received, Lamela says that any pertinent information is included in the dispatch for responding units, including information that would alert first responders to the likelihood that the incident is suspicious in nature.
“If it truly is an active shooter, the phones would have been blowing up,” Lamela says. “It usually gives the dispatch a heads up that something isn’t right.”
However, if those details are missed or overlooked, first responders always should err on the side of safety.
“Unless you’re trained, stage until police can secure the scene,” she says. “Treat it as a real call. The minute you let your guard down, that’s when something bad can happen.”
Lamela warns that first responders and police could be the intended targets.
“Think of Columbine. Are they waiting and watching where you stage, and are they looking to take you out?”
