A spate of “swatting” calls at the start of the semester sent students fleeing and campuses into full lockdown mode—even as every case so far appears to be a false alarm. Officials say the hoaxes are costly, destabilizing, and hard to trace.
By the numbers, the threat is rising: swatting incidents nationally have climbed from hundreds a decade ago to well over a thousand annually, with hundreds aimed at K-12 schools in the past 18 months. Colleges are increasingly in the crosshairs.
What happened
In the week many students returned to class, at least five U.S. universities activated active-shooter protocols after 911 calls falsely reported gunmen on campus:
- Aug. 21: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Villanova University received active-shooter reports.
- Aug. 24: University of South Carolina fielded a similar call.
- Northern Arizona University reported a person with a gun at Cline Library on its Flagstaff campus.
- Aug. 25: The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, began reviewing an active-shooter alert that may prove false.
All of the reports were hoaxes. But the response was real: students ran, hid, and barricaded doors while police locked down buildings and swept large areas room by room.
“The words active shooter are probably just about as fear-inducing as anything you can think of,” said Gary Cordner, a former police chief and professor of police studies who is updating a guide on 911 misuse for the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at Arizona State University. “It can’t be ignored, it can’t be dismissed… College campuses are quite large… It’s a big task to check it all out just to determine nothing was going on.”
Why it matters
The hoaxes—commonly called swatting—force an immediate, resource-intensive response from police, fire, and EMS, and can put innocent people in harm’s way. They also fuel panic among students and families and disrupt the first days of classes across multiple states.
“It’s an enormous problem,” said Elizabeth Jaffe, an associate professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School who studies cyberbullying and social media. “One incident is a major problem, so if we’ve got hundreds and thousands, it’s an evolving epidemic.”
What is swatting—and how big is the problem?
Swatting refers to false reports of serious crimes designed to trigger a heavy law-enforcement response. Once associated with online gaming culture in the early 2000s, it is now used by pranksters and extremist actors alike.
- The Anti-Defamation League has tracked the phenomenon’s evolution; a former FBI agent cited by the ADL estimated incidents jumped from about 400 in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2019.
- From January 2023 to June 2024, more than 800 swatting cases were recorded at U.S. K-12 schools, according to the K-12 School Shootings Database created after the Parkland shooting.
- The FBI, aware of the issue since at least 2008, launched a national reporting database in 2023 so agencies can log swatting incidents and spot patterns.
“It used to be someone would pull the fire alarm because they didn’t want to go to school. Now they swat the school,” said Carla Hill, senior director of investigative research at the ADL. Hill helped the FBI investigate a 2023 ring that bragged online about targeting at least 25 synagogues in 13 states. But most perpetrators are difficult to trace: “There are so many ways you can do it without being traceable,” she said.
The toll: money, safety, and trust
Each hoax drains public-safety resources and carries real risk.
- “We have to treat each one as real until we know it’s a hoax,” said Kelly Smith, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office, noting the strain on ongoing investigations and local police.
- Data scientist David Riedman estimates police responses to false threats cost $82.3 million in 2023 alone.
- The danger is not theoretical. In 2017, Wichita resident Andrew Finch—unconnected to the caller—was shot and killed by police responding to a swatting hoax; gamer Tyler Barriss later received a 20-year prison sentence.
- In 2023 at Harvard University, four Black undergraduate students were held at gunpoint during a swatting incident, underscoring the potential for disproportionate harm to bystanders.
Why it persists
Experts point to low barriers to execution and high emotional payoff for perpetrators, from “thrill” seeking to ideological motives. Caller anonymity—through spoofed numbers, VPNs, and voice changers—complicates attribution and prosecution.
Earlier this year, an 18-year-old Southern California man was sentenced to four years in prison for more than 375 swatting and threat calls between August 2022 and January 2024—a rare case where investigators pierced the veil.
How universities and police are responding
- Immediate full response: Campus alerts, building lockdowns, and multi-agency sweeps are now standard until threats are conclusively ruled false.
- Coordination and data-sharing: Agencies are encouraged to report incidents into the FBI’s system to identify clusters and repeat patterns across jurisdictions.
- Public communication: Universities are refining alert systems and post-incident messaging to reduce panic while keeping communities informed.
Still, Cordner’s warning stands: with real active-shooter events occurring periodically in the U.S., agencies have no choice but to mobilize every time.
What can be done
Experts broadly agree on three fronts:
- Stronger laws and penalties. “We need to get some laws on the books,” Hill said, noting uneven protections state to state. Prosecutors have used existing statutes—from false-reporting to terrorism hoax laws—but uniform, modernized legislation would help.
- Better tracing technology. John DeCarlo, a former police chief and now professor at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College, points to the technical hurdle: swatters can mask voices, IP addresses, and identities.
- Consistent federal posture. Treating swatting as a federal offense and using national data to spot networks are key steps, DeCarlo said—while cautioning that more incidents are likely in the near term as law enforcement plays catch-up.
“Every hoax call like this diverts officers from real emergencies and real risks, and that’s the real tragedy of it,” DeCarlo said. “It takes public protection away where it’s needed.”
Reader questions answered
- Is there any evidence of real shooters in these university cases? No. All incidents cited were hoaxes or unfounded, though campuses treated them as real until cleared.
- Why don’t police ‘wait and see’? Because the downside risk is catastrophic. Policies require immediate, full response to any credible active-shooter report.
- What should students do when an alert hits? Follow campus guidance—typically Run/Hide/Fight protocols, shelter-in-place, and obey law-enforcement instructions—until an all-clear is issued.
- What’s next? Universities are reviewing after-action reports; investigators will work through call records and digital trails. Expect more prosecutions where attribution is possible and continuing pushes for state and federal legislation.
The bottom line
The wave of back-to-school swatting calls shows how a cheap, anonymous hoax can inflict real costs and real danger. While the latest university alerts were false, officials say they will continue to respond as if lives are at stake—because sometimes they are. The policy challenge ahead is to make swatting easier to trace and punish and harder to carry out, without dulling the rapid response that genuine emergencies demand.
