EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
Evansville Police say they may be close to making arrests into online threats made against officers and their families.
Last week, a swat team raided a home on Powell, but the people inside were not involved.
On Wednesday, police say they may have found the source of the threats at a home two houses down.
Now this question: what if these types of threats were made against someone not in uniform? Would police use the same level of force?
"We would take the same level of seriousness and our follow-up, if it was a threat to you or a threat to just any other citizen in the community," said Capt. Andy Chandler with Evansville Police.
Chandler says the use of a swat team in raiding a home last week wasn't just because threats were made against officers, but because of the level of protection needed based on what investigators learned about who may be inside.
"we cannot risk harm to officers going in, so we decided to use the swat team in that case," Chandler said.
Chandler says the source of the online threats claimed possession of explosives and armor-piercing weapons. An address check matching the IP address turned up a suspect with a violent criminal past.
"Was that gentlemen pictured with a handgun, flashing gang signs? Was he associated with that specific address? Yes, yes he was," Chandler said.
After that suspect and others were cleared, officers served a second search warrant Monday, on a home two doors down.
"Within that house, we found four cell phones. We've done some forensic investigation into those cell phones," Chandler said.
While no arrests have yet been made, Chandler believes they are close.
Evansville Police say the swat team was called out 14 times last year, mostly for serving search warrants.
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