The wave of "swatting" incidents across New York and the Northeast has attracted the attention of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who stopped by Troy High Monday to demand new action to crack down on hoax calls.
Schumer says threatening phone calls have disrupted 226 schools across the state over the past two weeks, and he’s calling on the federal government to launch a full investigation. He's come up with a "three-prong plan" to tackle the crisis, starting with a nationwide FBI probe into the incidents.
“Second, I'm calling for us to supercharge the FBI," Schumer said. "I will put in this summer's budget $10 million specifically to target swatting. A, to require, to get more FBI agents on the case. And B, it takes a lot of computer work and cyber work to go after these people. And so they need the money for the machinery and the computer time and all of that.”
The Democrat says he'll also ask the FBI to track all the swatting incidents in the last several years.
"They don't track them now," Schumer noted. "As any law enforcement can tell you, when you track these things you learn better."
Schumer says criminals, possibly operating from other countries, use Virtual Private Networks and Voice Over I.P. to cloak their activities.
"So what I want the FBI to do with this $10 million is create a cyber super SWAT team to go after those who are swatting in our schools. It's a full-fledged team with all the resources they need to do what they need to do,” said Schumer.
Troy Police Chief Dan DeWolf says the recent swatting incident at the high school and middle school drained resources.
"We had upwards of 25 to 30 officers that responded across the city, primarily here at Troy High," DeWolf said. "You know, it takes away from other real calls for service where people need a police officer there. And it also, you know, there's a propensity for something bad to happen when you have to have all these people rushing in and, and people are stressed out, you know, so it's just, it's unnecessary, and it is something that has to be stopped.”
Schumer praised first responders, students and teachers for how they’ve handled the swatting calls.
“We don't want to have to go through that reaction over and over again," Schumer said. "And you know, it's a little I know, some people say older people, they say, Well, you know, we went through this in this 50s and 60s and 70s, when we thought the Russians would bomb us and kids had to get under their desks. And I remember doing that, at PS 197. But it's different, because no Russian missile ever came. So you sort of knew it's unlikely to happen. But when you hear there's an active shooter in your school, you know there have been active shooters in other schools. So it makes the trauma so much the worse the fear so much the worse. The possibility that this is real, deeper in the heart of every person, every student, every teacher, every faculty member that works here.”
Schumer says he'll use his authority as Majority Leader to make sure his plan will be included in the budget.
