Lockport, N.Y. (WBEN) - In light of recent violent threats or 'swatting' incidents happening statewide and locally, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is initiating an approach to crack down on these alarming scare tactics and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Just last Thursday, 36 false reports where made in New York Schools, including Lockport High School, causing panic and disturbance to school children, their parents and teachers.
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"When something like this happens, it is terrifying. These swatting attacks are very disturbing. Imagine getting an alert or text that there was a mass shooter at school with students injured. That's what these hoaxes claimed, they didn't even just say there's a mass shooter, it said students injured. That is just traumatizing. It's awful, awful, awful.," said Senator Schumer Wednesday morning at Lockport High School.
"The feds need to step up to hold the perpetrators accountable, to figure out what happened and to figure out how to stop incidents like this, which are occurring in larger numbers at more and more schools. So I am issuing a three point plan right now."
A call to action for the police and FBI is in order, says Schumer. The Senate Majority Leader has called and written to the FBI to emphasize the need for a full investigation into swatting attacks and to work with the New York State Police to hold these perpetrators accountable.
The second part of the senator's plan is to secure funding to supercharge cyber investigative capabilities. Schumer says he is trying to secure $10 million dollars for FBI to particularly attack swatting issues.
"We're seeing so many attacks and acts like this, it means we need more resources, it means we need more agents to track down these evil criminals who hide in the darkest corners of the internet. Wherever these criminals may be in the world, the FBI needs to find them and bring them to justice," Schumer said.
The third and final step to the plan is tracking these crimes.
"We need the FBI and the feds to actually start tracking the crimes. They don't have a whole list of where they're occurring, when, and how. Where and when particularly because we won't be able to figure out the trends without the data. We need this data ASAP. They can put it together. And that's how we'll know because, do we know if this came from outside the country? We don't," says Schumer.
Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman says this was not the first time Lockport High School has been swatted.
"Last year, we were swatted as well, with a bomb scare. Our local police department did an excellent job helping determine where that was coming from. We know the seriousness of this. I consider these acts of terror. These are terrorist acts because they are bringing fear and terror into our communities and into our schools."