TROY – The FBI must launch a full investigation into the recent swatting incidents at schools because it’s too widespread for local law enforcement to catch whomever made the hoax calls of school shootings, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday at a news conference.
“There is no guarantee and probably not even a likelihood they’re from the Capital Region,” he said outside Troy High School. “If the swatter is out of the state, or particularly out of the country, you need the federal government.”
The FBI is not tracking all of the swatting incidents that have occurred throughout the country, Schumer said. A full investigation would include determining which calls were the same – the same voice or message, sent in the same way – and that could help them figure out who did it, he said.
The messages were sent using virtual private networks and voice over internet protocols, which allow the sender to hide their location, Schumer said.
“The FBI can pierce that.”
If the calls were sent from outside the country, he predicted the person could still be prosecuted.
“We have extradition treaties with a majority of counties and even if there aren’t, we have ways of stopping them,” Schumer said. “It could be just horrible, deranged people. It could be a government we don’t like, trying to disrupt our way of life.”
Schumer plans to advocate to add $10 billion to the federal government’s budget this summer, which would fund a cyber swatting team at the FBI.
He made the announcement outside Troy High, the site of a swatting call March 30. There were 36 swatting calls in New York on that day and another 12 or more in the following week. They all alleged bombs or active shooters were on specific school campuses. All of the messages were hoaxes, but police responded to all of them. Similar…
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