Panic buttons return to NYC schools after prior pilot became part of FBI investigation

The Adams administration is again testing panic button technology in classrooms, after a previous pilot with a separate company became central to an FBI investigation into potential conflicts of interest.

The city will distribute the new panic buttons to 51 schools across the five boroughs this year. The “Emergency Alert System” was developed by the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation in partnership with SOS Technologies. The buttons connect staff directly to 911, the NYPD’s school security division, and emergency medical services in potential active-shooter situations.

“We cannot stop all of the senseless violence, [but] we’re going to try like Hell to do so,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference at Spring Creek Community School in Brooklyn on Monday. “Our parents must feel safe. Our students must feel safe.”

There have been more than 1,900 school shootings nationwide over the last decade, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. There has not been a mass shooting at the city’s public schools, but threats remain. A few weeks ago, a 16-year-old student at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School posted a threat on social media, leading the NYPD to search his backpack, find a loaded gun, and arrest him.

Adams said the technology will be able to connect schools to emergency responders within 10 seconds and can show them exactly where in a school an incident is happening. “We will save lives by providing rapid response,” he said

Ray Legendre, spokesperson for the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, said the buttons will be “strategically located in schools,” and some administrators will also be outfitted with “wireless pendants.” He said the technology was made in partnership with a company called SOS Technologies.

The prior pilot program involved a panic button app made by a company called SaferWatch and took place in 2023. It was among the subjects of a federal investigation into influence-peddling in the Adams Administration.

SaferWatch had hired the government relations firm of Terence Banks to advocate for its technology. Terence Banks is the brother of former Schools Chancellor David Banks and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks.

Federal investigators were looking into whether Terence Banks improperly lobbied his brother for the contract. All three Banks brothers have denied wrongdoing, and the SaferWatch pilot ended without being expanded. David Banks and Philip Banks stepped down from their roles last fall.