Swatting calls spark fear, massive police responses in California

By Pooja Mamnoor

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    4/16/25 (LAPost.com) — False emergency reports, known as “swatting,” are triggering massive law enforcement responses and causing widespread panic across California.

In early March, Claremont McKenna College experienced the consequences of swatting when a 911 caller claimed to be holding someone captive in a campus restroom. “The caller told dispatch they were in a restroom on the Claremont McKenna College campus, holding someone captive and threatening to harm them,” the Claremont Police Department said in a statement. “They also stated they had a bomb and were going to walk around with a rifle and shoot anyone they saw on the campus.”

The call prompted a large-scale deployment of law enforcement and SWAT teams, sending students scrambling for safety across the five undergraduate colleges in the Claremont consortium. Campus authorities issued shelter-in-place warnings after police received the threat.

The incident occurred just one day after a similar hoax prompted a lockdown at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital.

Despite the serious disruption and fear “swatting” incidents cause, California law presents significant obstacles to holding perpetrators accountable.

Under the current state law, falsely reporting an emergency to 911 is only a misdemeanor offense. Threats are considered criminal only when directed at specific individuals — not institutions like schools or hospitals — creating a significant legal loophole.

“Right now, California law falls short,” state Sen. Susan Rubio said in a statement. “Unless a threat names a specific individual, officials have limited options, even when the danger is clear.”

To address this gap, Rubio introduced Senate Bill 19 – the Safe Schools and Places of Worship Act – which would allow prosecutors to charge individuals making credible threats of mass violence against schools and religious institutions, even without naming specific individuals.

Assemblymember Darshana R. Patel proposed similar legislation, Assembly Bill 237, which would extend beyond schools and places of worship to include day-care centers, hospitals, and workplaces.

“AB 237 will make it clear that threats against schools and religious institutions and hospitals and other locations will not be taken lightly and there are consequences,” Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy said at a news conference promoting the legislation. “This bill empowers law enforcement to hold individuals accountable for wasting valuable resources and instilling fear in schools and in our community.”

Both bills were partly motivated by an incident at Shoal Creek Elementary School in San Diego, where a 38-year-old man sent hundreds of emails threatening a mass shooting. A judge dismissed the case because the threats did not target a specific person, despite authorities finding a gun and a map of the school at the suspect’s home. Prosecutors later refiled the case, naming the school principal as the specific target.

“The claim that you cannot threaten an entity is beyond false,” Shoal Creek parent Jenny Basinger said while testifying on behalf of AB 237. “We are the entity. We are Shoal Creek Elementary. The students, the staff, and the community are the ones left picking up the pieces of the threat.”

Legislators would work to combine both bills into a single law if they’re passed, according to Rubio, who focused her bill on schools and places of worship as the most frequently threatened institutions.

The FBI reported in January 2024 that agents opened investigations into more than 100 separate threats targeting over 1,000 institutions across 42 states during a one-month period. Synagogues and Jewish community centers were the most targeted institutions, with more than 400 reporting threats, followed by schools and school districts, and then hospitals and hospital networks.

“These incidents cause fear and potentially dangerous interactions with law enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a 2024 bulletin. “Swatting calls and hoax threats are a daily occurrence, often come in clusters across the U.S., and are typically made to harass, intimidate, and/or retaliate against their intended target.”

The consequences for perpetrators can be severe when they are identified. Last month, a Lancaster teen received a four-year prison sentence after making more than 375 hoax calls including threats to detonate bombs, conduct mass shootings, and “kill everyone he saw,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. However, many similar cases have proven difficult to prosecute under current state law.

Bevin Handel, a spokesperson for the city of Claremont, said the local police department aims to file charges against whoever made the Claremont McKenna College call, but faces significant hurdles.

“The biggest hurdle in holding perpetrators of swatting calls accountable is determining their identities,” she said. “Advances in technology allow callers to mask their voices, phone numbers or IP addresses (‘spoofing’) or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.”

Handel added current state law makes it challenging to file charges against swatters that “truly reflect the magnitude of the response and the fear and trauma they can cause.”

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