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Amid a rise in false reports of emergencies like shooting threats at Syracuse University and other schools across New York state, several state legislators are introducing senate bills aimed at reducing the frequency of swatting.

Swatting, which is committed with the intent to elicit a response from law enforcement, has impacted at least seven of the state’s 10 regions, including central New York, since March 30. On March 31, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a statewide “heightened alert” in response to the increased frequency in falsely reported threats.

SU’s Department of Public Safety confirmed on Friday that a report it received of an active shooter threat at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs was false. Just five days earlier, on the night of Sunday, April 9, DPS received a similar false report of a shooting near College Place. SU confirmed the incident as a case of swatting in a campus-wide email on Monday.

In response to the surge in swatting cases, several state Democratic and Republican lawmakers have proposed legislation to increase the penalties for engaging in swatting or threatening to commit mass violence.

Democratic State Senator John Mannion — whose senate district includes North Syracuse and Cicero — announced legislation on Friday that would increase the penalty for a person convicted of swatting a school by reporting a false school shooting or violent incident on school grounds. The current law only accounts for false reports of a fire, explosion or release of hazardous materials on school grounds.

The bill sets out to expand the penalty for general false threat reports in cases of false threats involving a weapon or “dangerous instrument,” which would apply to swatting incidents, according to the bill. A person convicted under the new law would be charged with a class D felony and could serve up to seven years in prison.

Mannion announced the bill alongside Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley and Westhill Central School District Superintendent Steve Dunham at Westhill Senior High School, which dealt with a swatting case on March 30 after a caller falsely reported that seven students had been shot in the school’s bathroom, according to syracuse.com.

A similar bill from Republican State Senator Mark Walcyzk, whose district includes Watertown, would raise the penalty for swatting from a misdemeanor to a felony, which would increase sentences to a maximum of four years in state prison.

Walcyzk wrote in an April 5 news release that the bill’s proposed augmentation of penalties for acts of swatting would help to crack down on falsely reported threats by giving law enforcement greater flexibility to prosecute.

Republican State Senator Jim Tedisco, a sponsor for the bill who represents Saratoga County near Albany, emphasized the harmful effects swatting is having on schools across the state in his advocacy for the bill’s passage.

“With these terror calls, it’s becoming open season on spreading fear, stress, anxiety, and depression throughout our vulnerable student bodies as well as staff and their families. These contacts threatening violence in our schools is another form of terrorism which cannot be allowed to stand,” Tedisco wrote in the release.

In addition to increasing the penalty for swatting, two additional state legislators — Republican State Senator Joseph Griffo and Democratic Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, who both represent parts of Utica and Rome — introduced legislation to criminalize making threats of mass violence.

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The bills, S1603 and A6383, would penalize a person who makes a threat specifically of mass violence towards a school, college or university, business or other outlined locations.

If passed, the bill will enforce a fine of $35,000 and a sentence of at least three years in prison for people aged 18 or older who make a threat of mass violence in the first degree, while people under 18 would be subject to a $35,000 fine and at least 10 days in a juvenile detention facility, Buttenschon told The Daily Orange in an email.

At the federal level, Sen. Chuck Schumer in an April 1o letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray called on the FBI to launch an investigation into recent swatting attacks in New York state and across the country.

After New York experienced a wave of swatting cases which targeted at least 36 K-12 school districts, Schumer said the false reports of threats could be from “foreign actors.” An FBI official told The Associated Press in November that the FBI suspects swatting calls could be coming from outside the U.S. after tracing the numbers and internet addresses of where calls came from.

Schumer called the use of swatting to create panic in New York state schools “sick and cruel,” especially in the aftermath of shootings like that in Nashville on March 27, which left six people dead, including three children. He wrote that the FBI’s involvement would support local law enforcement while holding those who commit swatting accountable.

“We need to make sure that every time a call comes into law enforcement that it is a real emergency, swatting is no joke, and the feds have to step up to help curb this disturbing trend before someone gets seriously hurt,” Schumer wrote in the release.

As of Sunday night, all four bills remain in the codes committee.

Published on April 17, 2023 at 1:15 am

Contact Dominic: dcchiapp@syr.edu | @DominicChiappo2