Alabama Cop Accused of Making Multiple Swatting Calls While On-Duty Because ‘He Thought It Was Funny’

A police officer in Alabama was accused of making multiple “swatting” phone calls while on duty, and now authorities say he has been arrested.

Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr., 23, was placed on administrative leave from his job with the Montgomery Police Department after the Prattville Police said he made at least six false calls to the department over a three month period and he was arrested, WSFA reported.

Swatting, or making fake reports of serious crimes to draw a heavy police presence to a particular location, increasingly has become a problem across the country.

Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson said the alleged calls began on Oct. 30, 2023, and continued through late that December.

In his first call, Sanspree allegedly described a “subject laying in the front yard…apparently shot.” In other calls, he allegedly “reported seeing people breaking in cars, vehicles,” officials said.

He also allegedly called to report a “man walking around with a blood trail” and “seeing a male running around with a machete, people laying in the street bleeding," according to law enforcement officials.

According to investigators, when asked about the calls, Sanspree allegedly said he did it because “he thought it was funny.”

“We have enough to deal with, with the image of police officers, already, and then we have somebody do something like this, and he was on duty when he was doing this,” Chief Thompson said. “And so, yeah, it highly irritates me and other law enforcement chiefs that are trying to keep the image of law enforcement being an honorable career, and then we have people like this doing stunts like this.”

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Sanspree was arrested in Montgomery and taken to jail in Autauga County. He was charged with multiple counts of filing false reports of an incident and released on a $6,000 bond, according to police.

Sanspree reportedly had been an officer in Montgomery for over two years and was a patrol officer at the time of his arrest.

Thompson told WSFA that his department is also working with agencies in Georgia, Wyoming and Massachusetts to see if swatting calls in those jurisdictions may be connected.