Swatting

Swatting is a form of criminal harassment in which a person deceives emergency services into dispatching a large police or tactical response to another individual's address by falsely reporting a serious, in-progress emergency such as a hostage situation or violent threat. The term derives from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) police units. Because responders arrive expecting extreme danger, swatting endangers the targeted person, bystanders, and officers, and it diverts emergency resources from genuine crises. It is illegal at both the state and federal level in the United States.

Swatting has frequently targeted online communities, including streamers, gamers, and public figures whose home information has been exposed, and Reddit's content policy prohibits it as a form of harassment that threatens real-world violence. The crime can be prosecuted under statutes covering false reports, hoaxes, stalking, and wire fraud, with severe penalties when injury or death results. In a widely reported 2017 case, a swatting call led to the police shooting death of an uninvolved man in Wichita, Kansas; the perpetrator was later sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. In 2023 the FBI announced a national database to track swatting incidents and improve coordination among law-enforcement agencies.