According to Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS), a person is guilty of harassing communications when, with intent to intimidate, harass, annoy, or alarm another person, he or she:
- Communicates with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, telegraph, mail, or any other form of electronic or written communication in a manner which causes annoyance or alarm and serves no purpose of legitimate communication;
- Makes a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, with no purpose of legitimate communication; or
- Communicates, while enrolled as a student in a local school district, with or about another school student, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, the Internet, telegraph, mail, or any other form of electronic or written communication in a manner which a reasonable person under the circumstances should know would cause the other student to suffer fear of physical harm, intimidation, humiliation, or embarrassment and which serves no purpose of legitimate communication.
If the harassing communication fit into one of the three (3) categories below, call 9-1-1 and file a report with a police officer:
- Obscene phone calls: phone calls of an indecent and/or vulgar nature that tend to disturb or irritate the person receiving the call. These are normally directed toward the individual receiving the call or a specific person.
- Bias or hate phone calls: phone calls that are threatening, harassing or annoying in nature. The caller is making the calls because of the receiver's actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or national origin.
- Threatening phone calls: phone calls that express danger or harm may come to the receiver of the call and the receiver believes the threat is real.
After completing your report online, contact your phone service provider, as noted on your telephone bill, and give them your report number that you received at the end of this process. Follow your phone service provider's instructions and keep track of when calls occur and the number they are from (see below for how to do this).
After receiving a harassing communication , attempt to trace the origin of the communication by using the Customer Originated Trace. To use: hang up the phone and immediately pick the receiver back up and dial "*57". You will hear a message indicating whether or not the trace was successful.
If unable to trace the call using the above method, but a number is displayed on caller identification, record that phone number along with the date and time.
If harassing communications continue after filing a report, continue to use "*57" to attempt to trace the call or recording the number from your caller identification and keep a log of the phone calls noting the above information for each call. Once at least three (3) phone calls have been recorded it’s important to speak to a police officer (call 911) to determine if it is possible to identify the suspect and to file criminal charges for harassing telephone calls.