Seattle Launches Anti Swatting Service

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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In response to requests, the Seattle Police Department launched a service aimed at protecting residents from swatting attempts. The service page sums up swatting pretty well, calling it a "deliberate and malicious act that creates an environment of fear and unnecessary risk, and in some cases, has led to loss of life". To protect themselves, Seattle dwellers can create a user profile on the "SMART 911" online registry with their name, address, phone number, and other relevant info. 911 operators then check this database when they receive calls. If swatting concerns have been registered online, first responders are notified on their way to the reported incident. The service is explicitly designed not to interfere with emergency service response times, and the Seattle Police will still respond to any and all calls. The Seattle Police Department also uploaded a swatting PSA, which you can see below:

Swatting is a crime. For those unfamiliar with the term, swatting is the act of creating a hoax 911 call typically involving hostages, gunfire, or other acts of extreme violence, with the goal of diverting emergency public safety resources to an unsuspecting person's residence. Anyone can be the target of swatting, but victims are typically associated with the tech industry, video game industry, and/or the online broadcasting community.
 
Sircolby45 said:
IMO swatting should be charged as attempted murder (or just murder in some sad cases) if it isn't already. That is essentially what it is. I say throw the book at them.
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I say throw the book at them as well. Of course I've always thought of a book as being a 230 grain copper-jacketed piece of lead, and when I say "throw" I tend to think of that "book" moving at ~900fps.
 
capt_cope said:
Not a bad idea.
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Yes it is. 1) It creates a government database that you voluntarily signed up for giving them personal information. Information that could now be used against you.
2) There is a potential for abuse. If I know I am doing something illegal and want to seed doubt into the minds of cops thus potentially changing their response I seed the database.

I see #2 as less likely but just one of the ways this could be abused. But as for #1 its never good to start putting additional information in the hands of the government...who does a poor job of securing it in the first place.
 
kju1 said:
Yes it is. 1) It creates a government database that you voluntarily signed up for giving them personal information. Information that could now be used against you.
2) There is a potential for abuse. If I know I am doing something illegal and want to seed doubt into the minds of cops thus potentially changing their response I seed the database.

I see #2 as less likely but just one of the ways this could be abused. But as for #1 its never good to start putting additional information in the hands of the government...who does a poor job of securing it in the first place.
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Have you ever done any of these things:
  • applied for a drivers license
  • filed taxes
  • applied for a passport
I'm pretty sure the government knows your name, telephone number, and home address already...
 
capt_cope said:
Have you ever done any of these things:
  • applied for a drivers license
  • filed taxes
  • applied for a passport
I'm pretty sure the government knows your name, telephone number, and home address already...
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Pretty sure you've never told the government that you were sick, had allergies or any other "relevant" facts.

From TFA:

"SMART 911 provides the opportunity to create a web based profile tailored specifically to the needs of your household. For instance, someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who has a medical condition or allergy, could enter this information on a SMART 911 profile page."
 
capt_cope said:
Have you ever done any of these things:
  • applied for a drivers license
  • filed taxes
  • applied for a passport
I'm pretty sure the government knows your name, telephone number, and home address already...
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He lives under a bridge. I'm convinced.
 
Nah, we should just form an anti-SWAT team to go in and intercept SWAT in cases of suspecting swatting.
 
kju1 said:
Pretty sure you've never told the government that you were sick, had allergies or any other "relevant" facts.

From TFA:

"SMART 911 provides the opportunity to create a web based profile tailored specifically to the needs of your household. For instance, someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who has a medical condition or allergy, could enter this information on a SMART 911 profile page."
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Operative word here is "could". You're under no obligation to enter any info at all. Though no-one in my household is deaf, I know I'd appreciate the ability to inform the police if one of us were - that way they might try to use visual cues before shooting me, my wife, or my kid for not responding to verbal commands.
 
dvsman said:
How about they fix the flaw in the phone system that allows for faking the caller ID system?
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Someone take this guy out back and make him disappear before his words of heresy get heard by the wrong people!
 
Once everyone has signed up for the list, what good is it? The real solution is for folks to start demanding a less confrontational police department. Two recent OKC examples:
#1 a Hispanic deaf guy holding a stick and standing in his own front yard was quickly shot while the cops were in pursuit of someone else who happened to run to the area where the victim was shot(they claimed his walking toward them was a life threatening event because he was ignoring their shouted commands.)
#2 A white guy waving a gun around and sometimes pointing it at police was taken into custody without being hurt after several hours of negotiations.

We need more #2 response and zero #1.
 
Swatters make me sick, nothing more than domestic terrorism.
Was going to recommend posting this video in the news section what's like on the police end when I watched it this morning.
 
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Dead Parrot said:
Once everyone has signed up for the list, what good is it? The real solution is for folks to start demanding a less confrontational police department. Two recent OKC examples:
#1 a Hispanic deaf guy holding a stick and standing in his own front yard was quickly shot while the cops were in pursuit of someone else who happened to run to the area where the victim was shot(they claimed his walking toward them was a life threatening event because he was ignoring their shouted commands.)
#2 A white guy waving a gun around and sometimes pointing it at police was taken into custody without being hurt after several hours of negotiations.

We need more #2 response and zero #1.
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Ya, well we can't all be gun-waving white guys now, can we? I guess we non-whites are fucked.
 
kju1 said:
Pretty sure you've never told the government that you were sick, had allergies or any other "relevant" facts.

From TFA:

"SMART 911 provides the opportunity to create a web based profile tailored specifically to the needs of your household. For instance, someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who has a medical condition or allergy, could enter this information on a SMART 911 profile page."
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Giving that information to the police is absolutely vital for some. As an example, my friend has 2 autistic children and a cellphone tower is right behind his house. Someone called 911 said "please help me, he is going to kill me" from a cell and then hung up. Because the cell phone tower is right there, the police came up to his house guns drawn. Thankfully the partner of the figitty new cop showed up quickly because he wasn't listening when my friend told him, no he can't go into his house gun drawn and search because a 4 and 6 year old, both with autism are just going to freak out when a cop bursts in screaming commands and having his boys shot wasn't big on his list of things to do.

Imagine if it was a straight up swat team bursting in, both of his sons would be dead. With this info, if he were ever to get swatted they would know to at least pay attention to the fact that those kids are in there and should probably try and not shoot at the little screaming person.

Despite all the news stories, generally speaking the vast majority of cops are actually decent people most of the time. So if you have a home invader and call the cops, you are gonna want them to know before they come in that you have a teenager that is deaf, to limit the possibility of a tragedy
 
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I would say PSA and a APP for anti swatting ????
But then again we Danes just had a nationwide manhunt for what turned out to be 4 potheads in a stolen car being stupid in the wrong place. :rolleyes:
 
It's somewhat shocking but believable that all the swatting has come to this. At least the Seattle police are trying to take a proactive approach to this menace to society.
 
DNMock said:
Giving that information to the police is absolutely vital for some. As an example, my friend has 2 autistic children and a cellphone tower is right behind his house. Someone called 911 said "please help me, he is going to kill me" from a cell and then hung up. Because the cell phone tower is right there, the police came up to his house guns drawn. Thankfully the partner of the figitty new cop showed up quickly because he wasn't listening when my friend told him, no he can't go into his house gun drawn and search because a 4 and 6 year old, both with autism are just going to freak out when a cop bursts in screaming commands and having his boys shot wasn't big on his list of things to do.

Imagine if it was a straight up swat team bursting in, both of his sons would be dead. With this info, if he were ever to get swatted they would know to at least pay attention to the fact that those kids are in there and should probably try and not shoot at the little screaming person.

Despite all the news stories, generally speaking the vast majority of cops are actually decent people most of the time. So if you have a home invader and call the cops, you are gonna want them to know before they come in that you have a teenager that is deaf, to limit the possibility of a tragedy
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Hey you want to give away personal medical information go for it. But dont come complaining to me when the government uses it against you or loses it and someone else uses it against you.
 
kju1 said:
Hey you want to give away personal medical information go for it. But dont come complaining to me when the government uses it against you or loses it and someone else uses it against you.
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Dude. You're starting to make Alex Jones look rational.
This is a voluntary program.
Medical information is not required.
 
Laowai said:
Dude. You're starting to make Alex Jones look rational.
This is a voluntary program.
Medical information is not required.
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The government will use any medical info to gauge the effectiveness of the chem-trails.
 
kju1 said:
Yes it is. 1) It creates a government database that you voluntarily signed up for giving them personal information. Information that could now be used against you.
2) There is a potential for abuse. If I know I am doing something illegal and want to seed doubt into the minds of cops thus potentially changing their response I seed the database.

I see #2 as less likely but just one of the ways this could be abused. But as for #1 its never good to start putting additional information in the hands of the government...who does a poor job of securing it in the first place.
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They aren't asking for your finger prints, or your picture. They are literally asking for the info on your DL.
 
kju1 said:
Pretty sure you've never told the government that you were sick, had allergies or any other "relevant" facts.

From TFA:

"SMART 911 provides the opportunity to create a web based profile tailored specifically to the needs of your household. For instance, someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who has a medical condition or allergy, could enter this information on a SMART 911 profile page."
Click to expand...

This is if you have good reasons, to protect yourself from idiots, who may or may not be in the same city/county/state/country as you. And go on, say "Fix Caller ID spoofing". Yes, it needs to be fixed, BUT, Seattle PD doesn't implement Caller ID standards. So, they are trying to protect their citizens from idiots abusing a system they cannot fix because they do not control Caller ID.... If you don't need this, don't use it! But great for those that have disabilities... sheesh...
 
RogueTadhg said:
It won't prevent swatting. It's a measure to try to protect the target of swatting.
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"anti-swatting" literally means to prevent swatting. According to Merriam-Webster, the "anti" prefix means to "oppose...serving to prevent, cure, or alleviate...combating or defending against". So somebody is using the wrong term here.
 
One of the core issues is that our phone system is completely untrustworthy.

You can spoof a call to 911 to try to kill someone
You can spoof calls from a bank to try to rob someone
You can spoof calls from peoples neighbors to try to sell someone

We need a way to authenticate callers. I'd say use block chain so it sounds sexy and super secure, but whatever.

The people holding this back are the phone companies that make a lot of money selling infrastructure to scammers.
 
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