FBI now tracking false reports of school shootings

If those or similar swatting incidents occur again, they can be tracked by the FBI’s new National Swatting Virtual Command Center, according to New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer.

A week after the incidents, Schumer visited Lockport High School and other schools around the state, calling on the FBI to investigate and start tracking them.

Swatting is a false report or a bogus threat made in an attempt to draw law enforcement, particularly SWAT teams, to respond to a house, school or other location.

Lockport and South Park High schools were among two of the schools targeted March 30.

Teachers and students at Lockport High School spent 30 to 45 minutes in hiding after the lockdown announcement came, before they learned there was not an active shooter in the school. They waited as each classroom was emptied by police.

More than 100 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded. One teacher told The Buffalo News it was the most frightening day she had spent in 29 years of teaching.

The new center logs the incidents, helping local law enforcement exchange, track and share information, Schumer said.

It is open to all federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, as well as crime-fighting fusion centers that gather and analyze threat related information. There are more than 230 members, and there have been more than 130 entries of swatting instances since the center was created in May.