TOPEKA, Kan. — On Thursday evening, Kansas lawmakers passed a bill unanimously in the House of Representatives that would increase the penalties on swatting calls.
This comes after at least two serious swatting incidents in the state recently.
House Bill 2581 clarifies the crime as making an unlawful request for emergency service assistance.
Swatters pretend to be someone else and call 911 faking a dangerous emergency in an effort to draw a large police presence to that address. Swatting is usually done within the online gaming community as a prank.
If the bill passes the Senate and becomes law, a swatter would face more serious felony charges. If someone is hurt or dies as a result of swatting, the person who made the call would face a level 1 felony, which is the most serious.
"I'm happy," Officer John Lacy with the Overland Park Police Department said when he heard about the bill passing the House. "We need our lawmakers to back law enforcement on situations like that."
Kansas Rep. Patty Markley represents district 8 and lives in Overland Park. Markley is one of three lawmakers spearheading the bill.
"These aren't simply prank calls. They aren't hoaxes and they aren't funny. Your actions can have consequences including death," Markley said.
Wichita police shot and killed Andrew Finch on his doorstep in December by mistake as a result of a swatting call that came from California.
The bill is named after Finch.
Overland Park Police dealt with their own swatting incident in January, where an unknown person made up a story he'd shot his wife and would shoot police, saying he was at a home on West 131st Street.
An armed tactical team surrounded the home. Neighbors were instructed to stay indoors. A staging area was set up at a nearby elementary school.
The family that actually lives at the house was clueless and had nothing to do with it.
The incident cost the department 46 hours of overtime and at least $3,000. At least 17 officers worked the call.
Lacy says their detectives have leads on their swatter but haven't made any arrests.
"It's almost like a goose chase," Lacy said.
The investigation is a tough one. The swatter they're after could be behind a computer screen in a different country, who can mask their location and IP addresses or operate with different "ghost phone numbers".
The phone number that came through to Overland Park dispatch that day in January was from Seattle. Detectives made contact with the man connected to that number and determined he's not a suspect.
"It's very frustrating because we're trying to catch this guy. We want it to stop," Lacy said.
