# Plain Language Summary: Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act of 2025

This bill creates stronger federal penalties for "swatting"—when someone makes a false emergency call to send police or emergency responders to someone else's location. The law targets people who deliberately spread false information about serious crimes or emergencies, knowing it will trigger a large emergency response. This includes fake bomb threats, hostage situations, active shooters, or other violent crimes. The bill applies whether someone makes the false report directly or spreads misleading information through phone calls, emails, social media, or other communication methods that cross state lines.

The penalties are serious and increase based on the harm caused. If you're convicted of making a false emergency report, you could face up to five years in prison and fines. If someone gets seriously injured as a result of the emergency response, the prison sentence jumps to up to twenty years. If someone dies, you could face life in prison. Beyond criminal penalties, the bill also allows people and organizations to sue swatters in civil court to recover money they spent responding to the false emergency—this could include police overtime, fire department costs, ambulance services, and other emergency expenses.

The law also adds a new definition of "emergency response" to make clear what counts: any time a government agency or private rescue organization deploys people or equipment, orders evacuations, or warns the public because of the false report. This is a bipartisan bill aimed at stopping a growing problem where people use emergency services as a weapon to harass, threaten, or endanger others, often targeting streamers, public figures, or people they have conflicts with online.

Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act of 2025

Kustoff, David

Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act of 2025This bill makes it a crime to intentionally convey false or misleading information in circumstances where the information may reasonably be expected to cause an emergency response and the information indicates the occurrence of criminal conduct or a threat to health or safety (commonly referred to as swatting).