NYC to spend $1.6 MILLION on 500 panic buttons for bodegas to cut down on 911 response time

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sunday that panic buttons would be installed in bodegas across the city to alert police to crime occurring. Adams said in a press conference that the buttons would be connected to local precincts, and would allow law enforcement to connect to cameras in the stores to see what was happening and how an "immediate response" could take place.

The city will be spending $1.6 million on these buttons, with up to 500 devices being installed in "hotspot" crime areas throughout the city in the coming weeks, the New York Post reported. 

Adams said the buttons will be connected directly to local precincts will help cut down on response time. "Instead of just having the cats keeping away the rats, we’re going to have a direct connection with the police to keep away those dangerous cats that try to rob our stores," Adams told reporters.

The buttons will be installed by the company Silent Shield, and the locations will not be made public. Adams told the outlet, "No one knows who would actually have a device or not. That adds to the omnipresent and the element of surprise that we’re looking for."

“The bodegas are important, and what this is going to do is add an extra layer of safety,” Adams said. “Number one, for those who actually have the panic buttons and the direct communication to the police. But second, the element of surprise — 500 of these devices throughout the entire city.”

The United Bodega Association (UBA) launched a pilot program over the summer to install 50 panic buttons in bodegas across the city. UBA spokesman Fernando Mateo said, "This mayor has made this the safest city in the world, but there are always pockets where criminals take advantage … those pockets, we all know, the trains, taxis, and bodegas — we’re the easy target.

"For so long, we’ve been asking for a panic button. We have gotten promises from council members, from Congress members, from assembly members and from the governor. Guess what? The killings are still there, the stabbings, the shootings, the robberies, the attempt, the assaults, they’re all still there," Mateo said.