Police Departments Are Using Swatting Registries to Protect Swatting Targets | Hacker News Reader

Police Departments Are Using Swatting Registries to Protect Swatting Targets

techdirt.com

23 pointsMaysonL13 comments

So... the big question is does each SWATing registry share across city (city PD), county (sheriff), state (several LEAs) and federally (many LEAs) so there’s coordination? And, if a location were gamed to get placed on a registry falsely, wouldn’t that be a good place to commit a crime where the police wouldn’t respond? Rather than lists of “go/no-go,” I think police on the beat need to utilize Good Judgement, and especially heightened caution when they’re gearing-up with flash-bangs, body armor and long rifles. Maybe SWATing registries should be used as ephemeral advisories rather than a definite preemptive, decision-maker.

PS: This seems like a good topic for Mike The Cop, Officer401 and/or DonutOperator to cover.

"And, if a location were gamed to get placed on a registry falsely"

It would be extremely stupid to put "don't swat" pins on a map just because an unknown told them to do so. I would expect the cops to accept such requests only after ensuring they come from someone with any legit links to that location (owner, leaseholder, etc.) by going there at least once, identify the applier and hear their reasons for the requests, which would also help in case of a bogus swat call to find the authors or get closer to them.

Perfect place to rob or hold hostages! Places on this registry

Not so much - as the article notes the police still visit and sweep the place, they just don't arrive with guns drawn, and they even send plain clothes police instead of SWAT teams.

My question, though: what makes someone likely to be swatted? Is it their online expression of an opinion? Membership of a certain online sub-culture? A high real-life profile?

It seems to happen often to streamers and people in the computer security community (Krebs, fb exec, mudge).

>mudge

Preettty sure that was just a misguided welfare check incorrectly described as a "swatting".

See context: https://twitter.com/dotMudge/status/1211043309973622784

Odds are someone was worried about him after his tweet, not that someone called the police and pretended to have hostages at his address.

It's certainly never appropriate in the US to call the cops if you think that someone might be suicidal, but I don't think it'd be entirely inappropriate to be concerned by his initial tweet.

I don't know what happened with mudge, but "welfare checks" where the person calling has ulterior motives for involving the cops in a situation are a common thing as well.

Live streamers are perfect targets for swatters because they even stream the swatting itself..

ACLU report on militarized police:

War Comes Home: The Militarization of American Police(1)

1-https://www.aclu.org/report/war-comes-home-excessive-militar...

To whoever downvoted this because they didn't like it: This is just a listing of further reading material on the topic, from America's leading civil rights organization.

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