Northwest Ohio legislators, law enforcement hopeful about anti-swatting bill

This fall, swatting incidents happened in Toledo, Findlay, Columbus and Cincinnati.

"It's very dangerous. Dangerous for the people that are the victims of the swatting, it’s dangerous for law enforcement officers, it's dangerous for other people in the community and that's why legislatures have acted the way they have because of those incidents," said Capt. Matt Luettke of Lucas County Sheriff's Office.

Swatting is the act of purposefully calling 911 to report an emergency, like an active shooter, when there is no threat.

But now a new bill passed in the Ohio House is looking to crack down on swatting incidents by making it a felony.

"This would be a felony of the third degree. If an individual were to be injured as a result of one of these swatting incidents, it would increase that felony to a felony of the second degree," explained Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, co-sponsor of the bill.

When these incidents occur, law enforcement says it wastes resources and puts the first responders in danger.

That's why this bill also allows restitution for those who were impacted by the hoax.

"It drains resources," Luettke said. "In some instances, for smaller communities, that can drain the resources that they have. I mean that could be all of their officers at one location and then of course if something bad happens, that leaves the rest of that community unprotected."

The bill's passage in the Ohio House comes after the state has seen multiple swatting incidents over the past few months.

While the bill penalizes those who commit swatting, Luettke hopes the bill will deter swatters from committing the crime in the first place.

"We hope that people wouldn't do this. We hope that with the increased penalties that people would think twice before they did it."

Ghanbari similarly said, "This is legislation that is going to be making a positive impact in all of our communities and this is something that is not only supporting our law enforcement officers but really at the end of the day this is a piece of legislation that places the welfare and the safety and the security of the residents that we represent as state legislators, at the top.”

NBC 24 did reach out to Toledo Public Schools, as they have been impacted by swatting, but we have yet to hear back from that district.