The city is planning to put panic buttons linked to the NYPD in about 500 bodegas across the five boroughs, the mayor and police commissioner announced Sunday.
Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the city will allocate $1.6 million through an emergency grant to the United Bodega Association, as part of the city budget, to equip the bodegas with “SilentShields” buttons that would link cameras in the food stores to the NYPD in real time.
The move comes after a string of recent killings inside city bodegas, including a fatal stabbing in Harlem early Saturday, and two slayings in a 48-hour period last month — one at the Ameer Deli & Grill in Inwood, where a 24-year-old man was fatally knifed during a brawl, and the second outside the Shak Deli in Williamsbridge, where Sorai King, 20, was fatally shot.
“Bodegas are part of the heart and soul of New York City. They are on every corner; they are there for us at all hours, Mayor Adams said Sunday. “This program will bring peace of mind to our bodega owners… We’re telling these small businesses: Your city has your back.”
UBA spokesman Fernando Mateo called the alarms a “game changer.” His organization has long asked city and state officials to fund buttons in all 25,000 of the city’s bodegas.
Alex Mike, the manager at the Gourmet Deli on W. 51st St. at Eighth Ave., told the Daily News Sunday a panic button would be a boon, and that he’s been in situations where he’s needed to quietly summon the cops to his 24-hour store.
“Many times. Stealing. Shoplifting. A robbery, too. We got robbed at night,” he said. “We just let them take whatever they want. It’s not worth it.”
Yousef Ali, 21, a cashier and manager at Flavor Taste on Seventh Ave. and 56th St., said his father has a panic button at his store upstate.
“It’s safe. Beautiful. Faster,” he said. “You don’t have to find your phone to call.”
According to the mayor’s office, UBA will solicit competitive bids for the tech, and plans to start installing the buttons over the next several months.