Today the Senate Public Safety and Judiciary Committee heard a bill to expand the state’s swatting laws. Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove) introduced and presented the bill. The bill makes it a felony to place an emergency call reporting a fictitious emergency that results in a SWAT response when targeted at an address of an elected official, a judge, a prosecuting attorney, or corrections employee.

“Since the FBI began tracking swatting calls, they report more than 550 swatting attempts since last May, and over 770 attempts with schools as the target,” Limmer said. “I believe we should be prepared if this happens here. In this case, the bill is focused on public officials because they make laws, enforce laws, prosecute offenders, sentence offenders, and protect the public from offenders,” Limmer said as he explained the bill.

State law currently makes swatting in general a gross misdemeanor. The next stop for the bill would be a vote on the senate floor.

Watch the bill hearing to hear Sen. Limmer’s full comments.