SWATting, no not SEXting. . .

[Moose-Knuckle]

Just when you think you've heard it all. . .


Hackers Prank Calls Authorities, Provoke SWAT Team Response

http://abcnews.go.com/US/swatting-hackers-prank-calls-authorities-provoke-swat-team/story?id=14312879

After a short Google search "SWATting" is getting pretty common place, reports from all over CONUS. A local SWAT team just fell prey to this and that is how I heard about it.

It's only a matter of time before an innocent home owner gets shot and or a LEO.

[Eurodriver]

Damn.

I only clicked this thinking there was going to be pictures of hot teenage girls.

[QuietShootr]

That's not new, unfortunately. And it's another good argument for making the use of SWAT teams the exception rather than the first resort. It's hard to believe that anyone would send in a SWAT team without independent confirmation of some kind that something is actually going on, but there you go.

[Reagans Rascals]

isn't there an age old parable about this type of thing... you know... something about wolves and fake cries.... tends to not work out so well in the end...

[SWATcop556]

That's not new, unfortunately. And it's another good argument for making the use of SWAT teams the exception rather than the first resort. It's hard to believe that anyone would send in a SWAT team without independent confirmation of some kind that something is actually going on, but there you go.

Which is the way it works where I'm at. Very very rarely would a team be mobilized by a call into dispatch. It's usually the field troops or their supervisor that are on scene that make that call. The it goes through the chain of command.

One of the only calls I could see getting activated on without boots on the ground and on scene first would be an active murderer (I've come to loath the term "active shooter") in a school or business.

It takes a while to mobilze a team so that's why the old days of hold perimeter and wait for the team are long gone.

[QuietShootr]

Which is the way it works where I'm at. Very very rarely would a team be mobilized by a call into dispatch. It's usually the field troops or their supervisor that are on scene that make that call. The it goes through the chain of command.

One of the only calls I could see getting activated on without boots on the ground and on scene first would be an active murderer (I've come to loath the term "active shooter") in a school or business.

It takes a while to mobilze a team so that's why the old days of hold perimeter and wait for the team are long gone.

Even then, you'd think you would want to hear gunfire or have some other evidence that something is awry, no?

SWATting should NEVER work, because even if a team gets dispatched, audio/visual surveillance to verify that something bad is happening should take place before anyone even thinks of stacking up outside a house. I cannot imagine the level of dumb it would take for SWAT to kick in a door based on one phone call to dispatch with no supporting indicators.

ETA: And you can argue it from both sides, both the 'SWAT should have serious reason to kick in a door before they do it', and the other side of it: If a person knows that a correctly worded call to 911 can get a SWAT team emplaced pretty much wherever the caller wants, it seems like it would be a safety issue to let an unknown third party essentially direct the location and time that a team would arrive. Sounds like a tarp waiting to happen.

[bp7178]

Without any verification by officers at the scene I don't even see a team getting called out. Here, those requests have to go through the chain of command.

I think the media may be applying the term beyond what it was originally intended for.

In the one case in the link, I don't see how an entry would be made with zero verification or even any intel whatsoever as to whats currently going on in the house.

[Voodoo_Man]

We had one two weeks back.

Called in an "active shooter" at a school during school hours. I was in the school, with my shooter bag within 3mins and went room to room, floor to floor with three guys (two elements) before our swat guys showed up we were done and called it a prank/unfounded.

Call got traced back to out of state...

[Eurodriver]

Is it possible that with the increase of patrol officers carrying assault rifles that the media calls them "SWAT" when they are in fact, not?

[Voodoo_Man]

Is it possible that with the increase of patrol officers carrying assault rifles that the media calls them "SWAT" when they are in fact, not?

There is no increase of patrol officers carrying rifles, at least around here.

For your question, yes, the media and general public lack enough sense to think so.

[Eurodriver]

There is no increase of patrol officers carrying rifles, at least around here.

For your question, yes, the media and general public lack enough sense to think so.

None? Really? Compared to 20 years ago?

[Voodoo_Man]

None? Really? Compared to 20 years ago?

I cannot speak for departments I do not know about, but big box/city departments and those in my locale we "technically" have long guns, but they are used by special units and sit inside locked supervisor patrol cars or in HQ.

I will not get into specifics for opsec reasons but I have a glock, that is what I am limited to and I do not expect to have anything else any time in the near future.

Unless, god forbid, north hollywood or mumbai style situations occur, then everyone and their mother will have SBRs/etc/etc...

[JBecker 72]

None? Really? Compared to 20 years ago?

Every patrol car I see now a days has a rifle riding next to the shotgun on the front seat.

[Sensei]

Every patrol car I see now a days has a rifle riding next to the shotgun on the front seat.

NCHP has issued ARs to troopers for the past 2 years.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Several years ago now the agency I work for only had 870's in the squads for patrol officers (SWAT officers were and still are required to have their Colt LE6933s at all times), after a massive shootout with one the FBI's most wanted bank crews our agency finally got Shcrubmaster M4's for every squad. Sister agencies also put M4 type carbines in their squads after that incident as it spilled over into another jurisdiction.

[Eurodriver]

Every patrol car I see now a days has a rifle riding next to the shotgun on the front seat.

Thats my experience as well.

Every officer for my local PD has a Colt 6920 with (2) mags of Speer Gold Dot 64gr HP.

I could see some idiot reporter seeing a couple patrol officers with AR15s and saying its "the SWAT team"