New Virginia Laws 2023: Swatting and False Calls
Find out more about how Virginia has responded to swatting concerns.
It is a bad idea to lie to the cops. There are several crimes on the books related to lying to the cops. For example:
Filing a false police report;
Providing false identification;
Obstructing justice.
In 2023, law enforcement and first responders saw a new type of crime. There have been a growing number of false calls into dispatch about mental health issues, animal abuse, and child abuse. The online community has dubbed some of these calls “swatting.”
Swatting involves calling into law enforcement and falsely reporting false criminal activity or mental health issues to law enforcement. These calls require law enforcement to go to the scene. Many of these calls ended violently. Both law enforcement and innocent civilians were getting hurt or even killed. These calls were also creating a massive backlog of work for law enforcement.
The General Assembly responded by proposing Senate Bill 1291. This law was signed into effect in 2023 and now makes it an additional crime to provide false statements or induce someone else to make false statements to law enforcement or other emergency personnel when those statements are known to be false.
The purpose of the law is clear. No more swatting or false calls. If someone gets injured as a result of swatting and false calls, whether that be police or the person swatted, you are looking at a felony charge. That felony charge could cause you to lose the right to vote, the right to own firearms, the right to hold public office, and a lot of jail time.
The moral of the story is don’t swat people and don’t lie to the cops.