Reports show increase in swatting calls to schools in recent years

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In recent years, dozens of states in the United States have seen an increase in swatting calls to schools, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.

During the 2022-23 school year, the NASRO reported at least 174 instances of swatting calls. The instances happened in 43 states and the District of Columbia.

Swatting is when a person makes a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to dispatch a large police force to a specific location.

So far this school year, NASRO reported 20 instances across eight states.

On Wednesday, Louisville joined the list when reports came in reporting an alleged "active aggressor" at DuPont Manual High School.

Schools in Lexington, Evansville, Cincinnati and Dayton also received similar reports.

The calls ended up being a hoax.

Rudy Perez is the president of NASRO and the assistant chief of the Golden Valley Police Department in Minnesota.

Perez told WDRB hoax calls are not harmless as they are treated like real calls and waste valuable resources.

"It ties a lot of resources, and it ties a lot of information, and it holds back a lot of the process for education. When there is a lock down or a possible swatting call, we take it as serious as a possible shooting call and education stops when these kind of situations arise," he said.

Prior to working with the GVPD, Perez worked in law enforcement in Los Angeles. During which time, he said he responded to swatting calls.

"The last thing I want to to as a commanding officer at any police agency is tie up resources and remove resources when they're needed in another place because somebody decided to play a joke on the police department," he said.

Perez said sometimes people make hoax calls to see how quickly police will respond.

"It's not fair for the people who truly need law enforcement resources when this situation arises, and it's tied up for a hoax," he said. "Being the person that's responded to these things, some of the carnage and some of the challenges and things you see can never be erased. So for the person that thinks this is a joke to swat, a person is in it for himself, and he's going to seriously see some consequences when we come in and enforce the law."

After a hoax call, the NASRO suggests schools debrief with the entire school community to talk about what happened and how to improve moving forward.

The organization also said having enough SROs at all campuses to be able to quickly communicate with responding law enforcement and dispatchers is vital in determining if a threat is real or fake in a timely fashion.