A SWAT team just came to my house

Check every person in the house.

Kids, spouse, dog, anyone visiting. Visible injuries first, then ask about ringing ears, falls, or anything that needs a medic. Call EMS if anyone is hurt — do not drive.

Stay outside until cleared.

Follow the on-scene supervisor's instructions. Hands visible. Do not re-enter or move equipment until the team gives the all-clear, even if you are on the job yourself.

Get the supervisor's name and unit.

Name, rank, agency, badge number, callsign. You will need every piece of that information for the report. Write it on your phone before you forget.

Photograph the scene.

Door damage, broken windows, anything destroyed during entry. Wide shots and close-ups. Timestamps come automatically from your phone.

Get the kids and spouse calm and contained.

Pick one room. One adult per kid if possible. Avoid recounting the breach in front of them. They will replay it on their own — your job is to make the room feel boring.

Call your watch commander or supervisor.

Even if you are off-duty. For non-LE — supervisor, court security, hospital security, agency duty officer. Tell them you were the target of a swatting call and ask for the threat-assessment liaison. Do not let it route through normal complaint channels.

Notify household members at other addresses.

Spouse at work. Kid at school. Parents across town. Whoever placed the call has the data — there may be a follow-up to a related address.

Lock down the scene for evidence.

Do not repair damage yet. The agency that responded will need a damage report, and your insurance will need photos before anything is touched.

File a separate criminal report naming you as the victim.

The responding agency wrote a report on the call they got. You need a second report — at your local PD or the agency that responded — that names you as the victim of a false police report. That is the report federal prosecutors will pull.

Get a dispatch flag on your address in writing.

A "watch for swatting" entry that requires confirmation before any future SWAT-level deployment. Confirm it is logged and ask for the CAD reference number.

Tell the kids' school and the spouse's workplace.

Brief them on what happened and ask them to flag any unfamiliar caller, visitor, or pickup attempt. Most school offices and HR departments will document any unusual contact on request.

Run a free scan on the household.

See the free scan. The result shows which broker pages currently carry your address — the same pages a swatter pulled from. Run it for your spouse and parents too.

Start the broker cleanup.

Either DIY across the major brokers or have us run continuous coverage. Closing the address pages is the upstream protection that breaks the chain for the next attempt.

For NJ residents, file Daniel's Law demands.

See Daniel's Law. $1,000 per violation in statutory damages if a broker fails to remove within ten business days. Every broker gets the same notice.

Loop in the FBI field office.

Swatting is a federal crime under several statutes including 18 U.S.C. § 1038. The local field office is the right channel when the original local report stalls or when a follow-up attempt happens.

Use your agency's relocation protocol if you have one.

Some departments and agencies have a hotel-stay protocol for personnel under sustained credible threat. Use it. The data trail does not follow you to a hotel for a week, and that buys time for the broker cleanup to take effect.

Continuous broker cleanup.

A one-time opt-out is a delay, not a fix. Most brokers re-list within 3-6 months. We re-check every two weeks across 200+ broker sites and re-file the same day you reappear.

Sweep the household.

Brokers link you to spouse, parents, and adult kids on the same page. Closing one address closes the others. A second swatting attempt often targets a relative's address.

Confirm the dispatch flag every year.

Annually verify with your dispatch that the watch entry is still active. If you move, update it the same week.