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Seattle Police Department Is Offering An Anti-Swatting Service (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The practice of "swatting," or calling in fake threats to activate an aggressive police response to an unwitting home or business, has unfortunately lingered for the past few years. Starting this week, one police department in the United States is rolling out a system targeted directly at this illegal hoax practice. On its official "swatting" resource site, the Seattle Police Department acknowledges how swatting works, along with the fact that citizens have requested a way to submit their own concerns or worries about being a potential victim. "To our knowledge, no solution to this problem existed, so we engineered one," SPD's site reads. The site claims that swatting victims are "typically associated with the tech industry, video game industry, and/or the online broadcasting community."
SPD's process asks citizens to create a profile on a third-party data-management service called Rave Facility (run by the company Smart911). Though this service is advertised for public locations and businesses, it supports private residences as well, and SPD offers steps to input data and add a "swatting concerns" tab to your profile. With that information in hand, SPD says that any police or 911 operator who receives a particularly troubling emergency report and matches it to a location that has already been flagged with a "swatting concerns" notice, will share that information "with first responders to inform and improve their police response to the incident." The report notes that "all calls" will still receive standard police response, whether or not any swatting concerns are filed. "Nothing about this solution is designed to minimize or slow emergency services," the site reads. "At the same time, if information is available, it is more useful for responding officers to have it than to not."
SPD's process asks citizens to create a profile on a third-party data-management service called Rave Facility (run by the company Smart911). Though this service is advertised for public locations and businesses, it supports private residences as well, and SPD offers steps to input data and add a "swatting concerns" tab to your profile. With that information in hand, SPD says that any police or 911 operator who receives a particularly troubling emergency report and matches it to a location that has already been flagged with a "swatting concerns" notice, will share that information "with first responders to inform and improve their police response to the incident." The report notes that "all calls" will still receive standard police response, whether or not any swatting concerns are filed. "Nothing about this solution is designed to minimize or slow emergency services," the site reads. "At the same time, if information is available, it is more useful for responding officers to have it than to not."
This does raise a question, how often does a 911 call actually justify a response by SWAT?
If a police department wants to keep their SWAT team, and keep getting all the cool mil-spec equipment, then they need to use it as often as possible. Otherwise, their budget will get cut.
That last swatting incident (well, I do hope there haven't been any since) absolutely did not warrant a huge response in the form of massive presence of police with weapons at the ready, nor did it in any way shape or form warrant the officers opening fire on the guy. GP is absolutely right that police officers would do well to realize they are "not in Iraq", and that they are dealing with citizens who are at most suspected of wrongdoing. And as long as they are merely suspect, they deserve to be treated courteously and not end up dead.
Given the MO of police in the USA, I seriously doubt that this anti swatting database is going to make any difference.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Twenty year minimum for SWATTING.
Complete financial liability for all property damage and injuries.
Complete criminal liability for for all property damage and injuries.
SWATTERS deserve to die in prison.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.