Unfortunately, while this is a good story, police doesn't have the power to fish out and stop random internet trolls all around the country. I see a lot of this sentiment "why can't they just", but it's an unrealistic view of what's actually possible. I'm all for it in theory.

But almost every comment here is incredulously pointing out how inept police is to not be able to solve such an easy/obvious problem. There is nothing easy and obvious about it.

We need one of those "what every programmer should know about time zones" articles about common police and military misconceptions.

It's not easy, it's an investigation. I expect them to start with interviewing the victims, which will probably point them to some internet forums. Then it's about reading forums and identifying people and a zillion of other things that I can't think about because it's not my job (and so I already wrote too much.) Of course those investigators have other things to do but so do those SWAT teams. It's a DoS against the police.

If 911 can track calls, that would help, but I have no idea if they can, even in my own country.

No one asks them to fish out all the internet troll, just fish out the one that does 55 swatting-call, which, i bet is not that many

What do you mean. Police has the power to investigate. This is terrorism by another name. They should be obligated to find the offenders.

Basically, 9-1-1 Dispatch relies on the fact that it's a grievous crime and very unglamorous to make a fake report or troll the operator. 9-1-1 needs to remain as credulous as possible, and err on the side of false positives, lest they gain a negative public image.

At the same time, it costs nothing to pick up the phone and prank them. Any actor from anywhere could do it, and outside their jurisdiction, what can they do? The dispatcher is not empowered or equipped to discern truth from lies over a mere voice line from a stranger. The dispatcher can't even run a CAPTCHA to trap AIs. The public absolutely relies on being believed when they sincerely call that same voice line.

I do, perversely, see the merit in repeated response that simply turns out to be a drill. The merit is both training and public image, if the militarized police want to instill fear and shock and awe in that neighborhood, or on the evening news, then they get it by responding, not by dismissing obvious fakes. How often do you get to test your flash-bang rifle, fire up your bomb-siege-robots, and put a few miles on your urban tanks? It's like a parade on your wedding day, but you've already paid.

Only thing is, there seems to be no financial incentive or reward for the SWATter. Unless SWATting could be used to tie up and distract law enforcement resources as part of a bigger conspiracy, the only endgame of SWATting seems to be a drain on resources.