Hacker News Reader

Having done work on 911 call-taking systems, I can tell you that they do have the capability of placing notes on properties. Things like "large dog in backyard" or "known gun owner." That way they can inform responding officers as best they can. Talking to the police might not be enough, because that report won't make it to dispatchers who need the info. I don't know the proper procedure to get a note placed on the property.

View on HN

They are very likely to note perceived threats to an officer's safety, as that helps them both avoid injuring an officer and helps cover their ass if they decide to kill something innocent. They are NOT likely to note things like you mention because it open them up to liability. If they have a note on your property saying someone is likely to make a fake call about it, and then someone does and they show up and decide to kill something innocent anyway, it's going to look a little worse for them if there's a note telling them that.

I agree they are probably going to be hesitant to put a note on there saying something like "property owner is afraid of fake swat calls" or something like that. But they do indeed put notes like the exact ones I mentioned in my comment above, as I've seen them.

Talking to police is the first step. Not sure if he mentioned this in the article, but Brian Krebs himself has done it, since he was getting swatted with some frequency on account of his reporting.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com