NYC to buy 1.6 million US dollars in panic buttons for 500 Bodegas to try to contain the crime

The city will spend 1.6 million US dollars in order to set panic buttons in hundreds of Bodegas after a number of recently violent DELI incidents, said Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday.

In the coming weeks, up to 500 of the devices will be installed in shops in “Hotspot” in the five districts in the coming weeks.

The buttons are connected directly to the Central Command Center of the NYPD and bypass traditional 911 dispatchers to shorten the response times, said the mayor.

“Instead of just keeping the rats away, we will have a direct connection to the police to keep the dangerous cats who try to rob our business,” said Adams of the crowd.

The delis that receives the buttons installed by the Silent Shield company will not be announced to the public, he said.

“Nobody knows who would actually have a device or not. This contributes the omnipresence and the surprise element we are looking for,” Adams told the position after the press.

“The bodegas are important, and what this will do is add an additional security level,” he said. “Number one, for those who actually have the panic button and direct communication with the police. But secondly, the surprise element – 500 of these devices in the entire city.”

Last month, after two consecutive fatal Deli battles in the Bronx, the UBA campaigned for additional help.

A pilot program that was launched in June by the Tech company UBA and the public safety company Saferwatch had installed 50 panic buttons in Bodegas with high crime in Bodegas.

However, the reaction times were still inconsistent due to the poor integration into the police headquarters, argued critics.

“This mayor has made this the safest city in the world, but there are always bags in which criminals take advantage … these bags, we all know, the trains, taxis and bodegas – we are the simple goal,” said Uba spokesman Fernando Mateo.

“We have asked for a panic button for so long. We have received promises from council members, congress members, members of the meeting and the governor.

“Panic buttons will save the life of so many, not only the life of Bodega owners and workers, also the life of so many who are used in a Bodega search protection, but also the life of so many people,” he said.

Eli SotoPresent A 51-year-old Bodega worker in Pamela's Green Deli said that a panic button was necessary to protect him and the customers.

“The neighborhood, there are a lot of crimes. … they kill people, they steal,” Soto told the post office.

The 26 -year -old Aassim Kadeem, who works in the nearby Knockout Stop N 'Shop Grocery in Tremont Avenue, described the “Smart AS Hell.

“It is a little scary here,” Kadeem told the post office and said that the neighborhood was notorious for gang gang.

“Everyone can come in there and be a thief. Everyone can go in, they give a murderer like they don't know.

“Hopefully it works,” he said the panic buttons. “This is the main thing – just time, time, time. I never had to do it personally [911] Call me, but I was in situations in which people have to call, and it is usually between 10 and 20 minutes to like 15 minutes [for cops to arrive]And it is as if something can happen during this time … because someone can die, do you know what I say? “

Soto said that the NYPD's response times in the 49th district in which his bodega is located in his experience are dangerously slow and hopes that the panic buttons can help to improve the response times.

“Sometimes the police take a lot of time. So panic [button] is good. When you press the panic button, the police come, ”said Soto.