Big Tech Improvements To 911 System Raise The Risk Of More ‘Swatting’

January 11, 2018

A fatal police shooting in Kansas late last month focused attention again on how so-called swatting — prank 911 calls designed to get SWAT teams to deploy — puts lives at risk and burdens police departments.

There are more than 7,000 911 centers in the U.S. and, according to the National Emergency Number Association, they receive about 600,000 calls a day. Authorities don’t track swatting calls nationally, though the FBI has been monitoring the practice of those types of fake calls for about a decade...