NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Chief Technology
Officer (CTO) Matthew Fraser today announced the nation’s first pilot directly integrating
public schools with 911 services for life-saving rapid response in case of an active
shooter situation. The new Emergency Alert System (EAS) created by the New York
City Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) debuted at the Spring Creek campus in
Brooklyn — the first school building in the United States to have direct 911 integration
— and is scheduled to be rolled out to a total of 25 school buildings, representing 51
public schools across the five boroughs during the 2025-2026 school year. EAS
provides an immediate, secure, and automated pathway for public schools to directly

alert 911 of a critical emergency associated with a hard lockdown involving a weapon-
based threat or active shooter situation.

“Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity and the key to delivering for working-class
families, because our students deserve to feel safe in school, our parents must know
their children are in a secure environment, and our teachers should have the confidence
to focus on shaping young minds,” said Mayor Adams. “For 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. Every parent deserves to know their child is safe in school, and this
system gives them that peace of mind. 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. This new Emergency Alert System will protect our students,
teachers, and staff, making sure New York City Public Schools have the most secure
line of defense possible to keep our schools safe.”

“The Adams administration’s cutting-edge use of technology to protect New Yorkers
from physical and online threats is a major reason why New York City is the safest big
city in the nation,” said CTO Fraser. “As 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’s first to directly integrate schools
with 911 in a hard lockdown event, marks a crucial advance in our city’s broader school
safety efforts and provides additional peace of mind — a priceless commodity — for the
parents and families of students. I commend OTI’s Public Safety and Emergency
Management team, in partnership with New York City Public Schools and NYPD, for
their work on this groundbreaking project.”

“There is nothing more important than the safety of our young people. Today’s
announcement adds another layer of security in our schools and offers peace of mind to
our school communities in a worst-case scenario,” said New York City Public Schools
Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos. “This pilot builds on the robust safety measures
already implemented in our schools, including 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. I am proud to take this step alongside
our city partners to continue to prioritize the safety of our kids.”

A critical bridge between schools and real-time police dispatch operations, EAS can be
activated from multiple fixed buttons and wireless lanyards within a school and can
initiate a 911 response in under 10 seconds. This school year, the pilot will roll out to 51
schools located at 25 school buildings, allowing for five sites per borough. Each school
participating in the pilot will have multiple fixed buttons and wireless lanyards that can
activate the emergency system during a hard lockdown sparked by a weapon-based
threat.

The school-activated EAS bypasses the 911 call flow straight to real-time dispatch.
Within a matter of seconds, the dispatcher will put the call over the air and the system’s
dashboard will provide emergency responders pertinent information on the school.
Simultaneously, in these situations, the schools will have audible and visual indicators
notifying students and faculty that 911 has been notified, and the school is on a hard
lockdown. Additionally, electronic notifications will be sent to NYPD School Safety and
New York City Public Schools officials.

In late 2023, OTI’s Public Safety and Emergency Management division started working
with the Mayor’s Office, New York City Public Schools, and NYPD’s School Safety
Division to research options for a school-based panic button with direct connectivity to
911 in response to active-shooter scenarios, as no such product existed on the market
at the time. The available emergency alert options transferred calls through a remote
system in another state before subsequently routing them back to New York City. OTI
worked with an external vendor to build a new EAS that meets the needs of New York
City Public Schools, then rebuilt and tested the system within its internal lab to confirm
its effectiveness. OTI also created dashboards that provide law enforcement and school
officials with real-time insights in the event of an active shooter situation.
More than 1,900 K-12 school shooting incidents occurred in the United States between
2015 and September 2025, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. K-12
school shootings peaked at 351 in 2023 and another 336 occurred in 2024.

But thanks to the Adams administration’s proactive public safety efforts, shooting
incidents and shooting victims are at their lowest point in the city’s recorded history.

Since day one, the Adams administration has prioritized public safety initiatives to stop
the scourge of gun violence and keep 8.5 million New Yorkers safe. More than 24,097
illegal firearms have been removed from city streets since January 2022, including over
4,100 this year alone. Shootings have also decreased by 67 percent citywide since
before Mayor Adams came into office. In September 2025, major crimes dropped by
3.8 percent.

“Ensuring the safety of our students and educators must always remain a top priority.
The launch of this groundbreaking Emergency Alert System represents a vital step
forward in strengthening rapid response and protecting lives in our schools,” said New
York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud. “I commend Mayor Adams and Chief
Technology Officer Fraser for implementing innovative measures that enhance safety
and bring peace of mind to families across our city.”

“The safety of students and educators in our schools is paramount, and the initiative
announced today will help keep them safe in an emergency,” said Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “So, I commend the mayor for integrating this technology
across city public schools, starting here in Brooklyn. And I pray that these rapid
response alerts will never have to be used.”