Proposed Increased Penalty for “Swatting” Incidents

Republican State Senators Dean Murray, Jim Tedisco and Mark Walczyk have introduced a bill in the state legislature that would elevate “Swatting” from a class A misdemeanor to a class E felony. This bill would increase the sentence if convicted of “Swatting” from its current standard of one year in jail, to one and a half to four years in state prison.

Recently, more than 30 New York Schools received false threats, which included bomb threats as well as shooter threats. Area schools that were affected by this either were on a two-hour delay, or fully suspended classes for the day.  Schools were encouraged by the State Education Department and New York State Police to review their safety measures. 

Lawmakers are hoping that increasing the penalties will reduce and prevent the number of threats. Governor Kathy Hochul said on Friday: “ Our State Police went to over 226 schools, as well as encouraging and having law enforcement visit as well… I want parents to know… we are taking every single incident very seriously, we treat it as if it’s real, but the reality is this is meant to disrupt and cause chaos in our school system and indeed society… It is incredibly stressful on our families at this time, and there is nothing we want more than to restore some sense of calm and normalcy to our kids who have been through so much over the last few years.”