NYC school safety agents now using NYPD only radio frequency, worrying school staff
New York City NY September 16 2022
An NYPD decision to move school safety agents’ radios from a frequency used by school staffers onto a dedicated police channel is sparking safety concerns from some principals and union officials.
School safety agents — the unarmed NYPD employees posted in city schools — previously kept their radios tuned to the same frequency as the Department of Education administrators in their buildings. But starting this fall, the NYPD issued new radios and instructed school safety agents to stay on a channel dedicated to them and monitored by the department.
Police brass said the change was made to improve response times to school incidents. One school safety agent per school is still assigned to monitor the DOE frequency, according to the NYPD.
Some principals and union officials said the policy change could present a major safety concern if there’s an emergency in a school building and safety agents can’t immediately communicate by radio with DOE staff.
“I’m envisioning a situation in which we do have a real intruder,” said one principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The only way I can talk to all of the school safety agents is calling all of them on their cells, waiting for that all to be connected, and hoping they pick up?”
The shift has also prompted concerns from union leaders.
“While we understand the intention is to improve citywide communications, many principals have shared that the new policy is highly problematic and will prevent clear and timely communication on school specific matters,” said Craig DiFolco, a spokesman for the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators.
“It is critical that school personnel and safety agents communicate and coordinate quickly during situations that pose danger to students and staff, and the policy should adjusted to ensure that radio communication within school buildings is as efficient and effective as possible,” DiFolco said.
A high-ranking official at Teamsters Local 237, the union representing school safety agents, said some agents believe the new frequency will leave them short-handed in a crisis, especially if they can’t call staffers inside the school in an emergency.
“We told [the NYPD] that our backup comes from the people in the school,” the union official said. “It makes sense to be able to communicate to the people inside to get help outside.”
The NYPD and at least one veteran school safety agent defended the change, saying it’s leading to faster police response times and more quickly alerting agents to violence at or around neighboring schools.
“With this frequency, agents in the field have the ability to request immediate assistance from patrol officers during an emergency,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
One school safety agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “it’s actually better for [school administrators], better for us, better for the whole entire building safety… because now the response is immediate.”
The agent pointed to a shooting outside Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island last week, noting that several other schools in the area could immediately go on lockdown because their safety agents heard the news over the NYPD radio frequency.
The new channel is monitored by police, which means school safety agents no longer have to dial 911 to get a response from a precinct, the agent added.
The agent also said they’re glad they’re no longer on the school frequency, because the channel was sometimes used to summon school safety agents for issues not in their purview.
“They were calling school safety for a classroom management issue,” the agent said. “They were calling us for things that had nothing to do with us.”
It’s still possible to switch between frequencies, but doing so would violate a direct NYPD order, a school safety agent said.
A school safety union official said they asked the NYPD for permission to use both frequencies or get secondary radios, but haven’t gotten a response.
The DOE declined to comment and deferred to the police department.
The change comes as schools Chancellor David Banks has pledged to double down on safety measures, including hiring an additional 850 new school safety agents throughout the year, increasing emergency response training for principals, and rolling out new technology to alert parents of emergencies.
