These days it is no longer enough for some people to send hate mail or bash someone online. Instead what we’ve seen in recent years is people “swatting” other people, which for those unfamiliar is where one person calls the police on the other person, claiming that they’re hold hostages, enough to get police to send out a SWAT team, hence the term.
It’s hard to crackdown on such activity, but the police in Seattle think that they might have a way, and are encouraging people to sign up for their anti-swatting services, where basically people who might be concerned about being swatted can sign up and put their names and addresses into the database.
According to the police, “A 911 call taker receives a report of a critical incident. While ensuring first responders are dispatched to that call for service as quickly as possible, the call taker will simultaneously check for whether or not swatting concerns have been registered at that address. If swatting concerns have been registered, this information will be shared with responding officers, who will still proceed to the call.”
Note that police will still respond to all calls, regardless of whether or not a user has been registered. However if your home and name is registered, maybe police won’t be barging in guns drawn, which will hopefully reduce any potential accidents that might occur as a result. We’re not sure if these services will help to reduce the danger of being swatted, but we suppose it’s at least a step taken towards trying to curb it.
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