When emergency services receive a call that a school shooting is underway, a massive response begins to unfold. But more often than not, there is no active shooter. Most of these calls are a trend known as “swatting”. While some describe them as “prank calls”, the repercussions are no laughing matter. When taken credibly, “swatting” causes unquantifiable fear and panic, disruption to the school day, costly misallocation of emergency resources and personnel, and in the worst incidents, innocent people die.
Such a “swatting” incident occurred in Kingston on Thursday afternoon. At approximately 8:45am, police say they “received a suspicious call regarding possible violent activity” at the high school. Fortunately, the Kingston Police Department was able to quickly communicate with its school resource officers and other law enforcement agencies to determine the threat was not credible.
Just hours after the incident in Kingston, New York State Police issued an advisory: “The State Police is aware of swatting incidents that have occurred across the state, in which a caller states that there is an active shooter in our school. All of the reports are unfounded. We are working alongside our federal and local partners to investigate the threats.”
In 2023, there have been a tragic 17 school shootings in America this year so far. In 2019, the FBI estimated that there were over 1,000 swatting incidents per year (including many incidents not involving schools).
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