Bill > A01345

This bill amends the New York penal law to expand the criminal offense of falsely reporting an incident in the second degree to explicitly include deliberately making a false report in an attempt to cause a large number of police officers to be dispatched to a specific address or location. The bill modifies existing language to make such actions a class E felony, which is a less serious felony classification in New York's criminal code. Specifically, the bill updates the law to clarify that knowingly initiating or circulating a false report intended to bring about a massive police response to a particular location is now a criminal offense. This change appears designed to address situations like "swatting," where individuals make false emergency reports to provoke a large-scale police response to a specific address, which can be dangerous and wastes significant law enforcement resources. The amendment uses more gender-neutral language ("such person" instead of "he or she") and adds explicit language about intentionally causing a large police dispatch through false reporting. The bill will take effect 90 days after becoming law.

Housing and Urban Affairs

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A1345