A trend of swatting calls are sweeping across the nation. A person will call and report a violent offense or act at a certain location to try and solicit a response of law enforcement and first responders to that incident when there is actually nothing happening at all. While no major incidents of that matter have occurred locally, Monmouth Police Chief Joe Switzer informs the department does have procedures in place:
“We do have procedures in place to mitigate that. We have talked to the school districts and other businesses about this and we do have plans in place in case anything like this does happen. Social media and technology has allowed this to happen where they are going along and trying to see what type of response they can get out of something. It is dangerous. It is disruptive and makes things happen that really don’t need to happen.”
Furthermore, during the month of March, Chief Switzer reports the Monmouth Police Department made 56 arrests, wrote 61 violations, responded to 1,284 calls and 19 accidents.
