Remember when prank calls included asking to speak to “Mike Rotch” or, at worst, the 4 a.m. Dominoes delivery? Prank calls used to be annoying, mostly benign mischief, but they have taken a much more sinister and destructive turn.

In the past weeks, ViralRead has reported on the ‘swatting’ of Selena Gomez and Russell Brand.  Add to this list Diddy, Conservative blogger Erik Erickson, Chris Brown, Ashton Kutcher, and a Cheeseburger in Paradise in Waikiki, Hawaii. Most recently, a phony 911 call went to Beverly Hills police to send them to the home of Ryan Seacrest.

Aside from annoying celebrities in their homes and frightening diners, the prank 911 calls cost the police a lot of money and divert resources from, you know, actually helping people.

California lawmakers are finally taking a stand against this epidemic and proposing legislation to make anyone convicted of the prank calls pay the costs of the police response.

Thankfully Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark writers beat them to the punch and proposed an entire separate police force:  The Phone Police.  If only California had turned to ideas from 1990′s television sooner. . .