MAS was not one of the school districts targeted by hoax calls, called “swatting.”

By Melanie Stegner

news@pctribune.com

Minnesota schools have recently been the victim of what is known as “swatting.” Swatting is the act of calling 911 or police dispatch to get several officers to show up at a location. Many of the instances of swatting in Minnesota have been calls of an alleged bomb threat or fake school shooting. Nine of these calls occurred in the state from February 27-28, with two more occurring on March 2. One of these calls was placed to an Alexandria school.

According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the calls are believed to be coming from out of state. BCA Superintendent Drew Evans stated that the bureau is tracking if additional calls have come in. “The person claims they’re outside of a school, threatens to engage in an active shooter situation and gunshots are then heard at the end of the call,” stated Evans.  There were at  least nine hoax school-shooting calls that were been made to 911 in Minnesota over two days last week,  according to the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which has been investigating.  All the calls appeared to come from the same person, who used a voice over IP to conduct the calls, the BCA tweeted Tuesday.  The hoax calls came into 911 call centers in police agencies for Alexandria, Duluth, Ely, Eveleth, Brainerd, Bemidji, Austin, Crookston and Albert Lea.

A letter went out from Minnewaska Area Schools Superintendent Chip Rankin last week regarding the incidents in the state. 

 “While Minnewaska Area Schools have not experienced this issue directly, we know that many of our families may be concerned about school safety. Please know that our top priority is our students and staff’s safety and well-being. We take any and all reports of potential threats seriously and make every effort to maintain an environment where students and staff feel safe,” Rankin stated in the letter.  

“We want to continue encouraging our students and school community to report anything that could threaten school safety. As always, we work closely with local law enforcement to assist in these situations,” Rankin explained in his letter.

Minnewaska Area Schools has a school resource officer on site which greatly expedites the critical assessment. The false calls are high-priority calls that result in a lights-and-sirens high-speed response, causing safety risks for the first responders and the public, and they create a situation where there are limited public safety resources to be diverted to other community needs.

In 2022, 27 swatting calls were reported in Minnesota. Seventeen of them happened in the month of September. The Minnesota BCA created an app to aid in accurate reports. It’s called “See It, Say It, Send It.” Through the app, tips can be submitted to the BCA about potential threats and the agency will contact local law enforcement as needed to respond to criminal activity. 

Swatting is not a new act. A man was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for a swatting conspiracy. Most who engage in swatting are serial offenders also involved in other cybercrimes.

A well-known victim of swatting was Andrew Finch who died in 2017 when he was fatally shot by law enforcement responding to a fake hostage threat in Wichita, KS. 

In the state of Minnesota, falsely reporting a crime is a misdemeanor for a first offense with penalties of up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine of $1,000. A person who is convicted a second or subsequent time is guilty of a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a fine of $3,000.