Police: Active shooter calls at Iowa schools are part of 'swatting' hoax
Phone calls placed to several Iowa schools on Tuesday claiming there was an active shooter are a hoax, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation confirmed to 糖心vlog that the FBI is involved in the investigation.
Stephan Bayens, the commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, spoke about the "swatting" calls during a news conference Tuesday about school safety.
Bayens said swatting calls are a hoax by design.
Watch: Stephan Bayens, commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, provides swatting update
"It鈥檚 to use up law enforcement resources even though there is no active threat," Bayens said.
Multiple schools were affected, but posed no active threat, according to officials.
"It appears the calls are making their way from eastern Iowa to western Iowa," Bayens said.
Gov. Kim Reynolds also addressed the swatting calls, saying she's grateful that Iowa's kids are safe.
Officials said as many as 30 swatting calls were reported (check for the full list below).
Bayens believes the calls may have originated from the same source.
"There is similarities in these phone calls," he said. "The voice is similar."
However, tracking the calls can be very difficult, he said.
"These calls are typically made through the internet protocols, which makes tracing them incredibly difficult," Bayens said.
Other states have been impacted by swatting calls in recent memory.
"This is not unique," Bayens said. "Within the last couple of months, there have been other states that have experienced similar swatting calls. Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois within the last month experienced similar calls."
Bayens said he wasn't aware of any active threats at Iowa schools Tuesday.
"At this point in time, we don鈥檛 believe there are any active threats to any schools in Iowa," Bayens. "This appears to be an orchestrated swatting incident that is making its way across the state."
Doug Jacobson, a cybersecurity professor at Iowa State University, says swatting calls are usually untraceable, but investigators have an advantage in this case.
"The fact that there was so many so quickly together, that increases your odds of being able to try and trace that back to somebody," said Jacobson.
Here is the full list of schools impacted by swatting calls:
鈥 Cedar Rapids
鈥 North Liberty
鈥 Iowa City (multiple schools)
鈥 Clinton
鈥 Davenport
鈥 Muscatine
鈥 Cerro Gordo County
鈥 Story County
鈥 Lee County (multiple schools)
鈥 Waterloo
鈥 Boone
鈥 Mason City
鈥 Charles City
鈥 Clear Lake
鈥 Creston
鈥 Des Moines
鈥 Oskaloosa
鈥 Marshalltown
鈥 Monona
鈥 Nevada
鈥 Ottumwa
鈥 Decorah
Watch: Iowa 911 lines flooded with fake school shooting calls Tuesday