I'm not making an argument for SWAT teams, just about the difficulty of evaluating false reports of a serious crime.

A patrolman would've been more than sufficient for this.

That sort of depends on what report was made in the 911 call(s), doesn't it? I mean, we know now it was just one guy playing videogames at home, but you can't just call 911 and ask for them to send a SWAT team somewhere. Presumably the dispatchers were led to believe that something much more dangerous was taking place.