Swatting, a costly prank


Swatting, a costly prank


Swatting is the practice of calling an emergency hotline and report a violent crime such as a hostage situation, which mobilizes the local SWAT team (Special Weapons and Tactics ) to investigate the reported address of an unsuspected innocent. For the past decade, the practice of swatting streamers and celebrities became almost a common practice. In 2013, a number of U.S. celebrities became the victims of swatting, including Sean Combs. In the past, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, and Clint Eastwood have all experienced swatting. More recently, popular streamers have become targets for this harmful practice. New technology is making swatting both easier to pull off and more attractive. However, what these prankster does not realizes is the costs of mobilizing a full squad of armed police officers every time a fake hostage situation is reported.

According to Lieutenant Katrina Pruitt, the leader of the three SWAT teams in Austin, Texas, a small SWAT operation costs about $1,040 an hour. The average SWAT call is about three to four hours, which makes each prank call to cost up to $5,000 of government spending. This is not counting the cost of police officers, who are in the scene to direct traffic, the fire department, an ambulance, and multiple department chiefs. The increase in false swat calls in recent years has lead to unnecessary spending from the government to cover the expenses of the SWAT team. In addition, the occupied SWAT team leaves windows of vulnerability for real life-endangering situations.

What people often time forgets is the cost of police, ambulance, and other public services that they have access to as a citizen. Pranks such as Swatts gives the government unnecessary economic pressure and expenses. It is both the citizens's and the government's duty to stop such actions.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 8, 2019 at 1:03 AM

    This was a really intriguing post! I had heard about these pranks but did not realize it took thousands of dollars to employ a SWAT team. This post made me realize how dangerous these prank calls could be. I was also researching more into these situations, and I came across this article where one individual ordered 55 pizzas and never showed up. The pizza company wasted time, resources, and money making these pizzas. We should all be aware of the costs that these prank calls can have on businesses, government, and other people.
    https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/pizza-prank-costs-hundreds-of-dollars/article_8d3987c6-27f0-5b1b-abe0-3f2c58e0392a.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AustinApril 9, 2019 at 11:58 PM

      I agree. I definitely think there should be more actions done to these type of pranks that put on unnecessary costs to companies and the government. Stricter laws and punishment should be established to prevent more people to commit such actions. If these actions are committed on a daily bases, the cost of production for many products and government service will go up, which leads to a rising equilibrium price. This means that everyone could be paying more taxes or paying higher price for a product only because some pranksters decided to call the SWAT on an innocent citizen.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 25, 2019 at 6:02 PM

    Wow, I didn't think of how expensive it would be to moblize an entire squadron of SWAT and policemen. This reminds of the story that came out recently of the man who was killed as a result of a Swatting. It was a really sad story, and was the result of an argument over a game of Call of Duty. At least this time the man who called the SWAT was found and arrested. Hopefully this will discourage people online from SWATing. Although it seems like a simple fact, it obviously has a lot of repercussions.

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