Investigations continue, as local school and police officials work with the FBI and other state and federal authorities to confront the fraudulent bomb threats at area schools.

About 50 parents of Princeton school children joined Princeton Police Chief Nicholas Sutter and Schools Superintendent Steve Cochrane in the John Witherspoon School Auditorium last Thursday evening for a Community Forum on Swatting, a discussion of the ongoing investigations of swatting threats and the evolving responses implemented to help mitigate these “acts of terrorism,” as Mr. Sutter described them. 

The focus of the investigations has narrowed: The threats this fall, unlike those last spring, are “emanating from the electronic gaming community,” where players score points for the amount of havoc they cause, according to Mr. Sutter The “swatting” has disrupted Princeton Public Schools a total of ten times since it started last spring, most recently on October 20 at Johnson Park.

“It’s the highest priority event that you’ll see us respond to. It’s our children, our most precious possession,” Mr. Sutter stated. “We’ve made very very good progress,” he added, emphasizing that this is a nationwide phenomenon — from Alaska to Arizona, Washington, Oregon, New York, and, just last week, Fairfield, Connecticut, where every school in the district was simultaneously targeted. “It’s an epidemic,” he said.

Mr. Cochrane described the perpetrators as video game players scoring points for the threatening calls they’re making, for the schools they’re disrupting, and for the evacuations they’re causing. “It’s a game for them,” Mr. Cochrane said, “but it’s not a game to us.”

Mr. Sutter explained, “There have been many arrests nationwide. That’s the good news. We are working to link these incidents to our incidents. The unfortunate news is that these incidents continue.”

Though unable to reveal specifics, Mr. Cochrane stated that a next step in pursuing these investigations involves technological enhancements to the phone system that will help in tracing the sources of these threats.

Along with the focus on investigation, the police and schools are working together to refine their responses.

There’s been confusion, Mr. Sutter said, “about why we respond certain ways one time, and certain different ways other times.” He explained that these threats are often detailed and complicated. “Threat assessment is more difficult than it used to be.” For example, evacuation would sometimes be the most prudent response, but obviously not if the phone call threat involved a bomb in the parking lot.

“We always err on the side of caution,” Mr. Sutter reiterated. Based on the details in the threat, “we do the safest, most prudent response,” which may be evacuation, sheltering, or locking down. “We’re refining our response and hopefully as we go forward, we’ll be able to mitigate these situations.”

Both Mr. Sutter and Mr. Cochrane repeatedly emphasized their understanding and concern for the students, parents, teachers, and administrators involved in these incidents. “Every time I hear these calls go out, my heart sinks into my stomach,” Mr. Sutter stated. “We’re parents too. We’re sympathetic — let’s put it that way.”

After speaking for a total of about 30 minutes, Mr. Sutter and Mr. Cochrane invited questions from community members.

The questions ranged widely. Many parents were curious about the behavior of the “gaming community” perpetrators — “What are the rules of the game?” “How organized are they?”

“As organized as people playing video games,” Mr. Sutter replied, and he assured the gathering that federal investigators are exploring those same questions in their ongoing investigations throughout the country and beyond.

Other questions concerned the dilemma of responding to threats that are most probably fraudulent — no active device has been found in any of the ten recent swatting cases in Princeton schools, Mr. Sutter answered. “We’re forced to react to these incidents as if they’re real. We always err on the side of caution, but we’re trying to mitigate the response.”

Several parents sought further information and expressed some concerns about how these situations are communicated to students, and Mr. Cochrane explained procedures in place at the different grade levels, with middle school and high school students being directly informed of the situation, while often certain information is withheld from elementary students.

The overall tone of the forum was highly supportive of school and police efforts in addressing the swatting incidents. The audience applauded at one point in response to a father’s appreciative “you’re doing a great job.”