Kendall County Sheriff’s Office investigating potential swatting incident

The Kendall County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a hoax phone call made to the KenCom Public Safety Dispatch Center that it is treating as a potential swatting incident.

Swatting involves making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of police officers to a particular address. Shortly after midnight Tuesday, a call was made to KenCom that an individual harmed another person in the house.

“Deputies have received training and information regarding swatting incidents and were able to identify this as a possible swatting incident,” according to a news release from the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office. “Deputies were able to make contact with the residents of the home by telephone and resolve the situation as safely as possible.”

The Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident in an attempt to identify the origins of the call.

“Any threats toward our community can never be taken lightly,” Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird said in the release. “These situations highlight the importance of good, quality training which helps prepare our deputies to safely and effectively respond to a situation which has the potential to be very hazardous to both our citizens and our first responders.”

The Sheriff’s Office advises people follow a few steps to avoid becoming a victim of a swatting incident. Those steps include using a firewall for network security, using strict privacy and security settings on devices and social media accounts and to avoid oversharing personal information on social media and public websites.