\u201cFor the first time ever in our nation, a public school system will have direct integration with 911 services to ensure that help is on the way within seconds if there is ever an active shooter or weapon-based threat,\u201d Adams said in the announcement. \u201cEvery parent deserves to know their child is safe in school, and this system gives them that peace of mind. We\u2019ve already taken more than 24,097 illegal guns off our streets, and now we\u2019re making sure our classrooms have the strongest, fastest protection possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EAS can be activated from fixed buttons and wireless lanyards, initiating a 911 response in fewer than 10 seconds and kicking off an automated notification system. An alert through the EAS bypasses the regular 911 call flow and provides a direct alert to an emergency dispatcher, who can put out a call over radio and update information on the emergency system\u2019s dashboard to provide first responders with pertinent information on the school.<\/p>\n
When activated, the EAS also provides audible and visual indicators notifying students and faculty on site that 911 has been notified and that the school is on a hard lockdown. Electronic notifications are sent to NYPD School Safety and New York City Public Schools officials.<\/p>\n
Work to build the system began in late 2023, the announcement<\/a> said. The Public Safety and Emergency Management division of the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation started working with the Mayor\u2019s Office, New York City Public Schools and NYPD\u2019s School Safety Division to research options for a school panic button with direct connectivity to 911 in response to active-shooter scenarios. At the time, the city says no such product existed on the market and that other options transferred emergency calls through a remote system in another state before routing back to New York.<\/p>\n The city worked with a vendor to build a new EAS, then rebuilt and tested the system to confirm its effectiveness, according to the announcement. The office also created digital dashboards that provide law enforcement and school officials with information.<\/p>\n This school year, the EAS pilot program will roll out to 51 schools located in 25 buildings, or five sites per New York City borough.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a father of school-aged children, there is nothing more important to me than my kids returning home safe at the end of the day. This brand-new Emergency Alert System, the nation\u2019s first to directly integrate schools with 911 in a hard lockdown event, marks a crucial advance in our city\u2019s broader school safety efforts and provides additional peace of mind \u2014 a priceless commodity \u2014 for the parents and families of students,\u201d New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser said in the announcement.<\/p>\n The pilot arrives amid growing questions about the advantages and drawbacks of public safety technologies in schools. A number of school safety experts have warned about the dangers of relying on technology<\/a> in response to active shooter situations on school campuses. A Long Island school district<\/a> is facing criticism for its use of a threat-detection system that relies on artificial intelligence and cameras in classrooms and other indoor areas.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tWritten by Keely Quinlan![\"Keely](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761610867_777_dY969nH0-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tKeely Quinlan reports on privacy and digital government for StateScoop. She was an investigative news reporter with Clarksville Now in Tennessee, where she resides, and her coverage included local crimes, courts, public education and public health. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Stereogum and other outlets. She earned her bachelor\u2019s in journalism and master\u2019s in social and cultural analysis from New York University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a new pilot program that will integrate an automated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13225,13226,81,13227,9,24,3059,56,63,65,64,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-19267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-13225","9":"tag-automation","10":"tag-eric-adams","11":"tag-matt-fraser","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-public-schools","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-public-safety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}