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New York City public schools are piloting a new emergency alert system that gives direct and immediate access to 911 if an active shooter is present at their buildings, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday.
“[It] is capable of initiating a 911 response in under 10 seconds,” said Adams, noting that the pilot is the nation’s first of its kind initiative.
The city plans to test the device at 51 public schools located in 25 school buildings across the five boroughs this academic year, Adams said. The schools will have multiple buttons affixed to certain locations as well as wireless lanyards that staffers can wear that can activate the emergency system.
Adams showed off the new Emergency Alert System at Brooklyn’s Spring Creek campus, holding it in his palm, the word “POLICE” written in black and a red button with the word “PUSH” written in white.
He and Alicia Arjune, a student at the Academy for Young Writers, pressed the red button together. Within a second an alarm rang. A screen behind the two then showed an alert was coming from Spring Creek Community School.
“This panic button pilot will offer additional peace of mind to myself and my fellow students so we can spend our time in school figuring what our passions are and just being kids,” Alicia said at the press conference.
The device comes after the debut of SaferWatch, an app designed by a Florida-based tech firm that has a “panic button,” allowing school safety agents to respond quickly to emergencies, including shootings. (That app, piloted at five schools, faced scrutiny after company officials enlisted the help of a consulting agency owned by the brother of then-schools Chancellor David Banks to expand its footprint in city schools.)
The new system was developed in-house by the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation along with the help of vendor SOS Technologies.
In 2023, the city’s technology office, along with the Emergency Management division, the Mayor’s office, Education Department, and NYPD’s School Safety Division began researching school-based panic buttons with a direct line to 911 during an active-shooter emergency.
The current emergency alert relies on transferring calls through a remote system in another state before rerouting to the city.
The pilot builds on the other safety measures implemented at schools, said schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos.
“This includes the Safer Access Program, which locks main entrances to our buildings, NYPD School Safety Agents in every school, and emergency protocols that keep our schools safe,” she said in a statement.
The number of School Safety Agents plummeted from 5,050 in 2019 to 3,613 in 2024-25, according to data from the Independent Budget Office and the Education Department’s website.
The new tool bypasses the 911 call flow, going straight to dispatch, and it can initiate a response from 911 quickly, Adam said at Monday’s press conference. The schools will also have audible and visual indicators notifying everyone that 911 has been alerted and that the schools are on hard lockdown. NYPD School Safety and DOE officials will also get electronic notifications.
Over 3,000 K-12 school shooting incidents occurred in the United States between 1966 and September 2025, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database (The dataset includes all shootings happening on school property at any time of the day or week with intent to harm. This includes sports games, after-school events, and gang violences.) School shootings peaked at 351 in 2023, and the number of victims shot, both fatal and wounded, peaked at 276 in 2024.
This month, a 17-year-old high school student was found with a loaded pistol at East Brooklyn Community High School, according to police.
Similarly in September, a 16-year-old Queens high school student had a loaded gun in his backpack at Cardozo High School in Bayside. Police said the teen posted a threat on Instagram.
At the press conference Monday, Adams noted his administration’s efforts during his tenure to confiscate illegal guns from across the city. This year, the administration has removed over 4,100, according to the press release.
“We’ve already taken more than 24,097 illegal guns off our streets, and now we’re making sure our classrooms have the strongest, fastest protection possible,” Adams said.
Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.
