JCC Bomb Caller Using High-Tech Voice Disguiser To Mask Identity

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By Daniel J. Solomon March 9, 2017

The individual phoning in threats to Jewish community centers and institutions nationwide is using devices to make his voice sound feminine and disguise his phone number, according to John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism.

“We have what appears to be one offender behind a large number of these and then we have had kind of copy cats,” he said on CBS Thursday morning. “We have an offender with some technical prowess here.”

He advised JCCs and other institutions not to immediately evacuate the premises when a threat comes in because it encourages more threat, instead counseling that institutions make a search of their buildings before leaving.

“They hide behind the shadows, they work from a distance,” he said. “Their goal is to instill fear and cause disruption.”

NYPD has been a crucial actor in fighting the threats, with intelligence from the department helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation nab copycat Juan Thompson last week.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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