School Swatting Surge Drains N.J. Police Resources Statewide

Teachers screamed “Lockdown! Lockdown!” through the halls of  Matawan Regional High School on March 9. A secretary in the main office had just received a call threatening violence at the school. The school resource officer who overheard it picked up his radio to call the police.

“Get into the classrooms!” the teachers shouted.

Cops carrying long guns could be seen patrolling the roof of the Monmouth County high school as anxious parents lined up in their cars, awaiting word on whether their children were safe.

It turned out the school had been swatted, a situation where a school district receives a message warning of a bomb or active shooter.

The next month after the incident in Monmouth County, a similar scene played out across more than a half dozen school districts in Burlington County when threats were made at eight districts on April 13. The calls sent police and school officials scrambling to respond while students sheltered in place and parents waited for news.

Swatting has, in recent years, become more prevalent, and the techniques to disguise who is behind the threat has become more sophisticated. Swatting incidents have increased 546% nationwide between 2018 and 2023, according to data from the Educator’s School Safety Networks.

Threats in N.J. outpace national trends

Even with the nationwide increase in swatting, the large number of threats made to schools in the Garden State this spring isn’t normal, said Paul Hirschfield, a Rutgers University associate professor of sociology who studies school security.

“What the reports also suggest is that 20 incidents in a single month or a single school in New Jersey would be out of step with national trends,” Hirschfield said.

In Moorestown, police said more than 20 false bomb threats were called into schools in Burlington County prior to the flurry of threats made on April 13.

The day that Matawan Regional High School received a threat, Montclair High School in Essex County also went into a lockdown.

Within the span of a few weeks this spring, West Deptford schools in Gloucester County were hit with repeated, anonymous threats across three different days.

In a letter to the community on April 14, West Deptford Superintendent Dr. Brian C. Gismondi called the threats a “national crisis occurring all over the country” that could strike a community at any time, anywhere.

“In fact, the FBI has launched its own independent investigation into these events,” Gismondi continued, “and based on the available evidence, we are now certain that this is part of a coordinated national trend.”

‘So much panic’

When the calls came into West Deptford, the New Jersey State Police and county bomb squad units responded. As is the case with swatting incidents, law enforcement determined the threats were not credible, but the police response is always the same.

“It is truly a shame that such a significant amount of time and vital resources are being diverted to address these disruptions,” Gismondi said.

And that’s exactly what the people behind the threats are hoping for, experts say.

“One of the reasons why people turn to these swatting incidents is because they’re essentially taking advantage of the fact that there’s so much panic,” Hirschfield said.

The FBI and Anti-Defamation League estimate that swatting incidents cost law enforcement agencies between $15,000 and $100,000 in resources, according to a report from 2023 on the practice of swatting.

Aberdeen Chief of Police Matthew Lloyd, whose department was the lead agency investigating the threat at Matawan, said the police have no choice but to treat every threat as credible until they’re certain it isn’t.

“Right away, you treat it as real,” Lloyd said.

The call that day was determined to have been a robocall, which later gave police some reassurance that students and staff were not in danger, he said.

“We knew that there was nobody on the property. We knew that we had the school secure. We knew that we were doing everything that we were supposed to do,” Lloyd explained.

Swatting was a frequent occurrence in Camden County last year, as well. A representative from the prosecutor’s office said they investigated 56 threats and eight swatting incidents in 2025.

“Unfortunately, threats like these have become increasingly prevalent and are happening with alarming frequency,” officials from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said. “What might once have been dismissed as a prank or idle comment is now understood as part of a troubling and widespread pattern that disrupts schools and communities.”

A spokesperson for the FBI said both the Philadelphia and Newark field offices were aware of the series of hoaxes and were working with local authorities and prosecutors to investigate the incidents.

“We treat every threat with the highest level of seriousness,” according to the agency spokesperson. “These actions put innocent lives at risk, disrupt our communities, and are a federal crime.”

Some officials worry that the frequency of false threats could result in complacency if a real threat does emerge.

“I fear that it could become a situation of the boy who cried wolf,” said Tony Trongone, a former superintendent who was past president of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators and today is executive director of Great Schools of New Jersey. “It is becoming an untenable situation in schools because of the disruptions.”

Low-effort, high-impact crimes

Unlike the days when a bomb scare might be called in from a traceable payphone around the corner or a threat might be written on a bathroom stall, today’s threats are more complicated.

Swatting incidents are also difficult to investigate because of the use of spoofing technology, social engineering and Voice over Internet Protocol services that disguise the true location of the call.

“These are low-effort crimes,” Hirschfield explained, pointing out that once the masking technology is established to disguise the source, calls can be made with greater frequency.

When charges are filed, convictions can carry harsh penalties. Last week, two people were charged and sentenced for their roles in separate swatting rings. One was a juvenile charged in connection with a hoax threat at Villanova last August. The leader of a swatting ring from Romania was also sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Investigators said some incidents lead to charges, but that their goal is prevention and intervention, especially when juveniles are the ones responsible.

Early detection and reports from the community can be critical to identifying early warning signs that a student may attempt a swatting or make a threat against a school, authorities said.

According to Trongone, authorities have a vast array of investigative technology to trace threats back to their source. But many times these issues involve a minor and occasionally involve a student with special needs, complicating decisions to file charges, Trongone said.

“It depends on the event. Every event is different,” Trongone explained, adding that he has seen students let off with warnings or lesser penalties. “It’s all situation based.”

‘There’s a shooter in the school’

No arrests have been announced in the Matawan Regional High School threat.

But the rumors of what was being threatened that day — and how real it felt as it was unfolding — rippled throughout the school.

“Everyone was texting their parents, their moms, dads, loved ones, saying, ‘I love you,’” Blaircarter Gagneron said March 9 after students were dismissed.

Gagneron was in the lunchroom at the time the lockdown was called. “That’s when we saw the cops inside the school. Then we looked at our phones and were hearing there was a guy with an AK-47 in the school,” he said.

One mother called 911 after her son texted that there was a shooter in the school.

“We kept hearing that there was an intruder who apparently got into our school and they had an unidentified weapon,” Gallo said.

Officers with guns banged on doors asking people inside to identify themselves, said Gallo.

Outside, heavily armed officers stood watch at the school’s entrances and exits. One officer with a rifle was spotted on the roof of the school.

The panic and fear that began just before 1 p.m. melted away into relief by 2:40 p.m. when the lockdown was lifted. But the anxiety and trauma of such incidents may leave unseen scars.

“There’s a lot of ‘Where there’s smoke, there isn’t always fire,’” Hirschfield explained. “In this case, the smoke is the fire.”

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