The city will spend $1.6 million to put panic buttons in hundreds of bodegas after a string of recent violent deli incidents, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.
Up to 500 of the devices will be installed in stores in “hotspot” crime areas throughout the five boroughs in the coming weeks, said Adams and members of the United Bodega Association at a Sunday press conference outside Pamela Green Deli in The Bronx.
The buttons will connect directly to the NYPD’s central command center, bypassing traditional 911 dispatchers to reduce response times, the mayor said.
“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 the crowd.
The delis receiving the buttons, which will be installed by the company Silent Shield, won’t be revealed to the public, he said.
“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,” Adams told The Post after the presser.
“The bodegas are important, and what this is going to do is add an extra layer of safety,” he 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.”
Last month, the UBA lobbied for extra help after two back-to-back deadly deli skirmishes in The Bronx.
A pilot program launched in June by the UBA and public-safety tech company SaferWatch had installed 50 panic buttons in bodegas in designated high-crime areas.
But response times were still inconsistent because of poor integration with police headquarters, critics argued.
“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,” said UBA spokesman Fernando Mateo.
“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.
“Panic buttons is what’s going to save the lives of so many, not just the lives of bodega owners and workers, but the lives of so many that have run into a bodega seeking safe shelter and they’ve been killed,” he said.
Eli Soto, a 51-year-old bodega worker at Pamela’s Green Deli, said a panic button is necessary to keep him and customers safe.
“The neighborhood, there’s a lot of crime. … They’re killing people, they’re stealing,” Soto told The Post.
Aassim Kadeem, 26, who works at nearby Knockout Stop N’ Shop Grocery on Tremont Avenue, called the initiative “smart as hell.
“Over here, it’s a little scary,” Kadeem told The Post, saying the neighborhood is notorious for gang violence.
“Anybody can come in there and be a thief. Anybody can go in there be a killer, like you don’t know.
“Hopefully, it works,” he said the panic buttons. “That’s the main thing — just time, time, time. I’ve never personally had to make [911] calls myself, but I’ve been in situations that involve people having to call, and it’s usually anywhere from 10 to like 15 minutes [for cops to arrive], and it’s like, anything can happen within that time … because somebody can die, you know what I’m saying?”
Soto said the NYPD’s response times in the 49th Precinct, where his bodega is, are dangerously slow in his experience and hopes the panic buttons can help improve emergency response times.
“Sometimes the police take a lot of time to come. So the panic [button] is good. When you hit the panic button, the police come,” Soto said.
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