Школы и полиция Коннектикута проводят совместные учения по предотвращению ложных вызовов SWAT

Connecticut schools and police train for swatting threats after wave of hoax calls Addressing swatting incidents in Connecticut schools is a joint effort between law enforcement officials and educators, which is why they have been training to handle these situations more efficiently this school year. Members of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, Connecticut State Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, education professionals and more came together on Friday at E.C. Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain to explain what they have done this summer to prepare to combat swatting, and to remind people of the seriousness of these threats nationwide. Swatting is illegal and occurs when people make false threat reports in order to draw a large police presence and create panic in a community. "School safety is not something that educators or law enforcement can address alone, it requires all of us working together," said Michael Crocco, superintendent of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System. "Swatting threats are serious, and we take them extremely serious at the schools. They can cause fear, disruption for students, families and educators, and they require an immediate coordinated response." Last school year, just days and weeks before the beginning of the summer break, several Connecticut towns were the victims of swatting. Schools in Ridgefield, Greenwich, Norwalk, Westport, Hamden, Brookfield , Killingly, Darien, Watertown, New London and Plainfield were some of the buildings that received threats in June. "We should be clear about what swatting does," said Ronnell Higgins, commissioner for the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. "The threat may be false, but the fear, the destruction, all of that is very real. It can send a school into lockdown, it can bring a significant police response. ... It can also divert important public safety and law enforcement resources from the communities they're protecting. This is why we are taking these incidents seriously." Connecticut's Intelligence Center tracks swatting incidents and shares this information with local, state and federal officials, Higgins said. During the summer, Higgins' department held a summit bringing educators and law enforcement together to go over best practices for handling school threats, including swatting. Training opportunities were offered online during the summer, and work will continue during the school year. "When a call comes in, whether that call is answered by an administrator, a custodian or a staff member in a school, we want them trained on how to tract so we can all respond orderly and properly," Higgins said. At the FBI level, P.J. O'Brien, special agent in charge of the FBI Field Office in New Haven, said the bureau's role "is to connect the dots when threats involve multiple jurisdictions, online activity, interstate communications or repeated patterns." "Local police and Connecticut state troopers are the first response," he said, saying "they know their communities best." While violent crimes have declined nationally and within Connecticut, there are still challenges when it comes to public safety, including cybersecurity and other online threats. "During the summer, schools might have been closed, but the work did not stop because student safety remains a year-round priority for the FBI as well as our other law enforcement partners," O'Brien said. This article originally published at Connecticut schools and police train for swatting threats after wave of hoax calls.