> If SWATing is the weapon of choice for harassment mobs, then fix that first.
How do you counter this weapon? Obviously you have to break the kill chain, but which part?
1. A target is geolocated; this is impossible to prevent if the target shares this information about themself freely.
2. The attacker makes a phone-call to emergency services, likely but not necessarily using a method they believe will anonymize them. Is it technologically feasible to close anonymity holes in the phone system? Should 911 calls from anonymous numbers be null-routed?
3. The attacker needs to persuade the emergency operator that an armed police response is necessary. This is theoretically possible in any country that believes armed police responses are sometimes needed, even those in which police normally patrol without weapons.
4. The armed police response will probably fail to kill the target. This seems to be the weakest part of the kill chain, where most murder-by-swatting attempts fail. Training police for this scenario could reduce the risk even more, but the possibility of an accident will always be non-zero if you have armed police responding to what might be some sort of murder in progress.
I think SWATings would probably continue to happen even if you completely resolved that third or fourth stages, eliminating the possibility of an accident completely. The anonymous troll probably still gets his rocks off at waking up the victim in the middle of the night by unarmed conflict resolution social workers banging on his door looking to resolve the [probable] misunderstanding. Breaking the kill chain at the second stage seems more promising for this reason, but I am not sure eliminating anonymous 911 calls is practical or ethical.
How do you counter this weapon? Obviously you have to break the kill chain, but which part?
1. A target is geolocated; this is impossible to prevent if the target shares this information about themself freely.
2. The attacker makes a phone-call to emergency services, likely but not necessarily using a method they believe will anonymize them. Is it technologically feasible to close anonymity holes in the phone system? Should 911 calls from anonymous numbers be null-routed?
3. The attacker needs to persuade the emergency operator that an armed police response is necessary. This is theoretically possible in any country that believes armed police responses are sometimes needed, even those in which police normally patrol without weapons.
4. The armed police response will probably fail to kill the target. This seems to be the weakest part of the kill chain, where most murder-by-swatting attempts fail. Training police for this scenario could reduce the risk even more, but the possibility of an accident will always be non-zero if you have armed police responding to what might be some sort of murder in progress.
I think SWATings would probably continue to happen even if you completely resolved that third or fourth stages, eliminating the possibility of an accident completely. The anonymous troll probably still gets his rocks off at waking up the victim in the middle of the night by unarmed conflict resolution social workers banging on his door looking to resolve the [probable] misunderstanding. Breaking the kill chain at the second stage seems more promising for this reason, but I am not sure eliminating anonymous 911 calls is practical or ethical.