50,000+ raids per year. VICE reports… this is a problem:
In recent years, a small amount of hackers and gamers have been anonymously reporting fake hostage situations, shootings, and other violent crimes designed to send elite police units, like SWAT teams, to unsuspecting people at their residences.
Kids are crazy nowadays. The first time I heard the term swatting I though I was being trolled, but once I looked further into it I found out it was actually real.
Really nice of them to show kids which apps, and cards they can buy to pull this type of “prank” off.
Holy a lot of money is dumped into those “just in case” SWAT teams that aren’t even in big cities.
2:39 – WHOA, that BEAR vehicle is awesome. For $400,000 I hope so.
I wonder how much more money it will take to get some of those Somerset County SWAT guys out of oldschool woodland camo and into some fancy new Scorpion, or Multicam? Don’t get me wrong, woodland is my favorite but it’s not modern.
At the end of the video it mentions a 16 year old Canadian kid getting arrested for 30 counts of swatting. There are 60 criminal charges pending, whoa…. I wonder how that will end.
Anyone ever been a victim of swatting, or know about a swatting story first hand?
Comments
16 responses to “Swatting – 911 Calling In A Fake Dangerous Situation So SWAT Responds”
Patrick Frey (who runs patterico.com) has been covering swattings for quite some time, starting after he was swatted. With each new report, he includes a list of previous ones with links to where he reported on it.
One of his more recent stories is here: http://patterico.com/2013/10/31/aaron-swartz-prosecutor-and-l-a-city-councilman-swatted/
Having some insight into SWAT protocol, there’s some stuff that doesn’t make sense. I’m not saying it isn’t a problem, but it makes it seem like the kids make the call and minutes later, police are busting through the door, windows, and down the chimney….that’s not reality on so many levels.
Regarding Mike’s reference to SWAT for suburban/rural areas. Crime and tragedy are not solely metropolitan; look at the long list of active shooters…anywhere is fair game. The double-edged sword is that SWAT consumes resources (time, money, OT, etc.) and FAR too many places have “teams” but are dangerously under-equipped, under-manned and untrained for what they believe they are prepared to deal with…even with government grants/equipment. I could literally write a book on this, but I’ll stop there.
‘But I feel so f*ckin badass with this multicam and black hawk down bump helmet! How dare you question my authorati!’
Is this a commentary on the rise of the “militarized police”, or a documentary on Swatting? The first half where he talks about all the gear local police forces have acquired seems arbitrary and sensationalized, like its not really relevant to the Swatting thing. Anyways, love that pic of Mona!
The title of the video is Police Militarization meets Hacker Culture, so they covered all bases before talking about the two clashing. I think that they also wanted to emphasize that its not just two cops on patrol showing up at your door for a welfare check. That’s my take.
My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw SWAT storm a 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious; especially since we had to invent a legal term, “swatting”, to make it a felony to make fake calls to the police. What should we call it when fake calls are made to the fire department…Hosing?
9:15, funny how they stop publicly reporting swatting to prevent copycats, but don’t do the same for “rampages” or the other “mass shootings.”
haha yea no doubt, definitely because swatting doesn’t normally result in the blood and guts which sells advertising for them *smh* sad
yea except when it is your house being busted open by thugs with itchy trigger fingers. “But hell after the raid if there is no action let’s get up on call of duty!”
Surprise surprise, another one today… This is getting insane.
Not just swatting, they don’t report Knockout game, nor do they report teen suicides.
To deter copycats, you know.
“The U.S. government has for years given away this technology for free.” Yup “free” that my friends is a bad four letter word.
I work security at a studio that has been Swatted twice in the past 2 months, both which took the form of bomb threats. The first incident required a mandatory evacuation for 6 hours, the second, not so much. We never received any call so we couldn’t act on something we had no knowledge of, but of course it fell back on all of us with the security team like a ton of bricks. And yes, the tenant in question is a large video game company that’s been giving us this hell.
ban high capacity swatting! the 4 fathers never envisioned this.
the interesting this about this is what’s being hacked isn’t really technology – it’s the SWAT system of overreaction and militarization. Sure, they have some basic and simple tech, but its that they provoke an enormous expenditure of dudes who are itching to use the cool stuff being thrown at them by federal money.
this is like someone in the drug hustle reporting a rival and having the cops bust in and shoot everyone. the police become willing pawns because of organizational incentives…
The commanders comments at the end made no sense. How does Swat improve EMS/ Police response? Looks like a clear case of Operator Syndrome.