LYNCHBURG, Va. — Governor Glenn Youngkin on Thursday signed two bills targeting false reports of emergency threats.
HB1572 and SB1291 increase the penalties for intentionally reporting a false emergency that would require law enforcement, including a SWAT team, to respond.
Matt Martin with the Arlington County Police Departments says it'll hold people make prank calls accountable
“It closes a gap in current Virginia law. We had a high school a year ago where someone called the school directly and, of course, the school staff member who received the call then called 911. When our detectives were investigating that case they realized that indirect swatting calling another person and causing them to call 911," Martin said. "Doing that is not currently illegal under Virginia law and there was no charge they could have brought."
Martin continued by providing another example.
"If somebody calls a shopping mall a movie theater or a grocery store or even a private residence and gives that person false information about a violent ongoing crime and that person calls 911, that's currently not a crime in Virginia," he said.
These laws also provide punishment if someone is hurt or killed because of a fake threat.
"The way it works is whether you call directly or call indirectly if no one is injured or killed, it's a class 1 misdemeanor, the same statute for making a false report to police the enhanced penalties," Martin said. Felonies only kick in if there is serious injury as defined elsewhere in the code or death."
An example according to Martin would be if a SWAT team is called and someone is shot. One of the reasons why the signing of these bills was so important is to protect people from harm.
"Swatting is often done not just as a prank but with the intent to hurt somebody with the intent to send a swat team to a place and hoping that something bad happens," Martin said. "Two people have been killed through swatting calls and the risk is very great to the public."
Gov. Youngkin delivered remarks and signed the legislation at E C Glass High School in Lynchburg.
