the scourge of false calls for help which sometimes turn into tragedy

Police officers, weapons in hand, wait in front of a small house in Florida. A man then appears on the steps. Quickly handcuffed, the latter is clearly stunned by the situation. “We received a call saying a man had killed his wife, tied up his children and threatened to set the house on fire”explains the police officer in this filmed scene.

But in reality, none of this happened and the handcuffed man was the victim of a “swatting”, a telephone hoax leading to a massive deployment of police forces. A very common phenomenon, which has been repeated hundreds of times in recent months, across the four corners of the United States. This type of situation can be fatal. In Ohio, six years ago, an officer shot and killed an unarmed man who was being swatted. How can we explain the emergence of this practice, and how can we stop it? The FBI recently created a unit dedicated to these hoaxes.