Apparently it was SWATting, not that CSGV will correct it initial assessment any time soon:
OSBI says they have gone through phones at the home where they thought the bomb threat originated and found the phone calls did not come from that location.OSBI says the man who shot a Sentinel police chief will not be arrested at this time. Agents interviewed the man and believe he was unaware it was officers entering his home.
They have not come out straight to say it, but this has all the markings of SWATting (Murder By Cop) and this crap is officially out of hand. First John Crawford III gets killed by an exaggerating asshole and now a Sheriff almost buys the farm but for the borrowed vest he was wearing.
Apparently it is easy to spoof Caller ID but I cannot believe that there is no way at all to trace the initial call to its source. Those “playing” this stupid game have to be sent to prison, dropped with Gen Pop with a gallon jar of Vaseline and charge a decent Pay-Per-View fee for the entertainment.
I wish the people of CSGV would be the victims of a few dozen SWATtings just to see what it’s like.
I’m not going to do it of course. It’s illegal.
Apparently it is easy to spoof Caller ID but I cannot believe that there is no way at all to trace the initial call to its source.
Very easy to spoof Caller ID. There are a few companies that offer this service for a fee, one that I know gives users two minute calls for free, and requires prepayment for calls longer than two minutes. Law enforcement agencies also have the ability to spoof Caller ID. This is a good reason to use a PIN code for your voice mail. If someone spoofs your mobile number, they can call your mobile phone and go directly to the voice mail and listen to messages.
For those wondering how “they have gone through the phones” to determine that the homeowner didn’t make the call when you can delete the call history, presumably the police used Local Usage Data (LUDs). LUD is details of your phone usage that is kept by the service provider. Data includes the time a call was placed, duration, and the number called. The FBI also records all mobile phone conversations and archives that information. They don’t (ummm… not allowed) to listen to the conversation without a warrant.
On a side note, this is another shining example of why No Knock Warrants should not be used all willy nilly. Fortunately this didn’t turn out to be the tragedy it could have been.
Bill, much thanks for the info.
We need mandatory police procedures to call a home before busting in on these kinds of calls. It’s stupid for police to break into a private domicile without full notice, including attempting to call the occupants on all phones available. If the 911 operator had called back to the supposed originating number, they’d realize immediately that the call was a hoax and not from that number. That’s probably true for virtually all SWATting episodes. As I said, that should be mandatory procedure for 911 dispatcher call back to outrageous calls like this.
Yes, it seems that in this case that would have been helpful to verify the number. However, most SWATTING is done without any attempt to hide the identity of the caller by making claims that are hard to disprove. For example, the two people that died in the Ohio Walmart when police arrived thinking there was an active shooter event about to happen and shot a man with a airsoft gun talking on the phone. The caller claimed to be in mortal fear for her life, but in fact there was no danger and the police reacted too quickly to what they were told to expect to find.
Another example was in Texas, where a person driving by an OCT demonstration at a Jack In Box claiming that the “rifle bearing thugs” had the employees and customers all grouped to together, when in fact there was a crowd of people (employees and customers) that were asking for pictures and autographs,
Another example was a motor cycle rider that left a gas station and his concealed gun was visible for a second and a person called saying that an armed motorcycle rider had robbed the gas station. When in fact the rider did not rob the station and paid for his gas in advance. However, he was stopped a few miles away and held at gun point until the misunderstanding was corrected. Fortunately, the police and the rider both stayed calm and no shooting took place.
In the above examples, there have been no reports of the callers being charged or arrested.
SWATting and No-Knock raids are symptoms of the disease of progressivism and totalitarianism. If the antigun crowd (which hates individual rights and adores an oppressive government) has to resort to these tactics, it proves our point that we need to be armed to try to resist them. They are cowards and rely on Gestapo tactics for a gruesome success. Anyone who files such false reports should be tried and preferably executed.
For me, the No-Knock raids are especially troubling in light of the Constitution. There is no need for them. If a suspect is in a building, the police can simply wait for their eventual departure and arrest them then. It is sheer laziness and a power trip on the part of the police to conduct them since most evidence will usually not be lost by serving a warrant and a visible force outside will keep all but the most hardened criminals from initiating a gun battle.
The obvious exception is a terrorist cell, but even there a little bit of investigation and confirmation is in order; a simple anonymous tip call should not suffice.