Swatting calls aren’t funny, so the penalties shouldn’t be laughable, Kansas police say

The 911 call, if it had been true, laid out a most harrowing situation for Overland Park police Monday morning.

A man had shot his wife and he would shoot any police who came to his house. Other family members were inside.

Suddenly, police engaged in two simultaneous races:

One was to rush special police forces toward the threatened house.

The other was to scramble for phone numbers and get someone on the line — the alleged shooter, the alleged victim, or anyone inside.

Police were aware this call could be an act of “swatting,” Overland Park police spokesman John Lacy said, meaning it could be a dangerous prank call to unleash a SWAT team on an unsuspecting home and neighborhood.

The practice is infuriating both law enforcement and lawmakers enough to spark a push for tougher laws to combat false reports to police.

A recent tragedy in Wichita, in which an innocent man was mistakenly killed by police after a false 911 call, was very much on the minds of Overland Park officers, Lacy said.

Police poised outside the home, but the special tactical teams were mobilizing out of sight outside a nearby elementary school, which was closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, Lacy said.

Police reached the supposedly dead wife on her phone at work, Lacy said. And then they reached the husband who, like his wife, had no idea anything was going on.

Anger and frustration followed. The family was distraught that someone had tried the dangerous prank. Police were frustrated that so many resources had to be deployed into a situation that can put both the victims and police in peril.

The swatting incident was the worst of two false calls to Overland Park police over the weekend. The other was a false report from a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted on the Indian Creek Trail. The trail was closed throughout the day as police searched for a potential suspect.

The police are investigating and want to be able to press charges in both cases, Lacy said.

And legislators want to put more teeth into laws to stiffen the punishment for intentionally falsely alarming police.

“We don’t think it’s a joke,” Lacy said. “We don’t think it’s funny.”

As Kansas law now stands, even if the person who made that phony swatting call is caught and prosecuted, they would face only a misdemeanor or low-level felony charge.

The legislature in 2014 amended the law to carry a tougher penalty if the call includes “false information that violent criminal activity or immediate threat to a person’s life or safety is taking place.”

But even under that section of the law, there would be a presumption of probation and not prison for most defendants under Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Now, spurred by the Wichita incident in which the man was fatally shot by police in late December, some Kansas prosecutors and lawmakers are discussing ways to toughen penalties for swatting.

“Making these false reports aren’t fun and games,” said Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson. “Police take these calls seriously, so we need serious consequences when it happens.”

State Rep. John Whitmer, a Wichita Republican, is working with a Democratic colleague, Rep. John Carmichael, on several possibilities for new legislation.

Whitmer said it was “ludicrous” that more can’t be done in cases like the Wichita incident where the swatting call resulted in a person’s death.

“There has to be something more you can do to discourage someone,” Whitmer said.

The lawmakers are consulting with prosecutors and law enforcement officials in coming up with a bill, he said.

Carmichael said that because many times, as in the Wichita case, the calls are made from one state to another or from one country or another, federal legislation is needed.

“But we are going to do the best we can in Kansas,” he said.

For now, prosecutors said that someone who makes a swatting call could be charged with giving a false alarm or with interference with law enforcement.

“These type of criminal acts generate very dangerous situations for both law enforcement and innocent civilians,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe. “It also ties up a significant amount of resources by the affected agencies. I strongly support the enhancement of penalties for this type of outrageous conduct, especially when they result in injury or death of innocent individuals.”

The California man accused of making the call is charged with both giving a false alarm and interfering with law enforcement.

And because someone died, Sedgwick County prosecutors have charged the suspect who made the call with involuntary manslaughter.

District Attorney Marc Bennett is pursuing that charge under the theory that the death occurred during the commission of a felony that was “enacted for the protection of human life or safety.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Swatting calls aren’t funny, so the penalties shouldn’t be laughable, Kansas police say."