BILL NUMBER: S1893

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to falsely reporting inci-
dents in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of
police officers to a particular address or location

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To deter the misuse of valuable police resources by those who falsely
report incidents in an attempt to require the dispatch of a large number
of police officers to a particular address or location.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill amends the penal law to amend the crime of falsely
reporting an incident in the second degree, to include incidents when
such a false report is made in order to facilitate to dispatch of a
large number of police officers to a particular address or location.
              

Section 2 sets the effective date - 90 days after it becomes a law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Under the current penal law, a person is guilty of falsely reporting an
incident in the second degree when, knowing the information reported,
conveyed or circulated to be false or baseless, he or she circulates a
false report of an alleged or impending fire, explosion or release of a
hazardous substance. Falsely reporting an incident in the third degree
is a class A misdemeanor.

While false reporting of a crime is unfortunately, not an uncommon
occurrence, increasingly, localities are seeing incidents where such
false reports are filed which require a large police response. Such
incidents are also known as "swatting" when someone makes a hoax call to
911 to draw a response from law enforcement, especially to draw the SWAT
team. Swatting incidents usually target a specific person at that
location. The person or party that calls often says that they are
witnessing or involved in an active shooter or hostage situation.
Authorities confront the situation, often with an armed SWAT team, only
to learn that it was all a hoax.

Such recent incidents have included Watertown police responding to a
targeted house on five separate occasions for a report of a shooting.
Three times they responded with long guns drawn and pointed at the
house, however each time police were sent there for incidents that were
false. The family and the police were victims of "swatting incidents"
which endangered the residents of the targeted address including an
81-year-old and an 88-year-old father, a 16year-old son and very young
children. The same house was targeted by the report of a house on fire,
resulting in firefighters having to respond. Again, it was a hoax,
precipitated by a video game being played over the Internet.

Swatting incidents place police in difficult positions. And even when
they suspect a hoax, they often must respond or risk criticism if an
incident proves true and they did not law enforcement failed to respond.

In another recent incident in Onondaga County, deputies responded to a
suspected "swatting" call after a man called 911 claiming he shot and
killed his girlfriend. Officials say the man also indicated that he
would shoot responding law enforcement officers. SWAT members responded
to the scene and nearby homes and businesses were told to shelter in
place and roads were closed off to all traffic during the incident.

Swatting hoaxes can turn tragic, as happened in Kansas when a reported
homicide and active hostage situation, resulted in the fatal shooting of
a resident by an officer who mistakenly thought the man was reaching for
a gun. It turned out Finch was unarmed, and the reports of a homicide
and hostage situation were false. The incident, investigators said,
appears to have been a swatting hoax that originated in a dispute
between online gamers. Nearly 1,400 miles away in Los Angeles, police
arrested accused swatter Tyler Barriss, 25, on suspicion of making the
false police call that led to the fatal police shooting in Kansas.

The damages from such false reporting are much bigger than just a dollar
amount. Scores of law enforcement and emergency personnel must respond
to such false incidents, putting lives in danger only to find out that
no such response was necessary because of a deliberate false report.
Amending the penal law to provide that "swatting", or falsely reporting
an incident in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number
of police officers to a particular address or location, is necessary to
deter the occurrence of such crimes and to preserve and protect our
overstretched police and emergency personnel, as well as to protect
innocent residents.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019-2020 - S.6740/A.8657.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None to the state. The bill is expected to save local resources by
cutting down on the number of police responses to falsely reported inci-
dents.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
90 days after it shall have become a law.