Des Moines, IA (Radio Iowa)– A bill introduced by a representative of Northwest Iowa that aims to increase penalties for falsely reporting an incident requiring a large police present is one step closer to becoming law.

Representative Zach Dieken  of Granville says his hope when he sponsored the bill on SWATTING was to reduce the number of false reports at schools after 89 non-existent threats were made last year.

Representative Dieken says the penalty for such an offense would be elevated to a felony.

The bill passed both the House and Senate without contention last week and now awaits a signature from Governor Kim Reynolds.