Bodegas To Get Panic Buttons, Police Training To Stop Crime

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — City bodega owners will receive security training from the NYPD, panic buttons and transmit live feeds of their surveillance to the NYPD, members with the United Bodegas of America said Monday after meeting with police brass.

Bodega owners from across the five boroughs met with NYPD officials, demanding new safety measures to protect workers and patrons in the wake of the brutal June murder of 15-year-old Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, who was dragged out of a Bronx bodega and butchered with a machete.

Arming owners with know how is a crucial step to protecting communities, said a spokesman with the United Bodegas of America.

"A bodega is a community place — it’s the place everybody knows — and that’s really the reason why bodega’s are used as safe havens, but with the trainings we’re going to get we’ll become real safe havens," said Fernando Mateo at a Monday news conference outside of NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

NYPD officials agreed to work with the some 150 members of the United Bodegas of America — which formed after Guzman-Feliz's death — to offer free security training for owners, help install panic buttons that would send alerts to a bodega's local precinct and transmit live feeds of the connivence stores' security cameras to their local precincts, according to Mateo.

Owners also asked for stun gun training and to allow qualified workers to obtain pistol permits for use inside the shops, but police shot down the request as "not a good idea" because of the risks of harming bystanders, according to Mateo.

Bodegas are often on the frontlines of crime with owners and workers having little choice but to intervene — and things haven't always turned out well.

On Sunday, a man was shot in the leg after chasing three thieves who had just robbed his relative’s bodega in Astoria, Queens.

"We need the training so we know what we can and can’t do," Mateo said. "And once we know that and we’re trained on that then we can put it into practice."

Police will also work closely with the coalition of bodegas to educate owners on gang activity in their communities, connect them with their local neighborhood coordination officers and have beat cops regularly visit and check in with the stores.

The NYPD will offer free training on how owners should react to violent crimes in or outside of their stores and offer technical assistance to install safety upgrades, but owners will have to shell out for the costs of the equipment, Mateo said.

The United Bodegas of America did not have estimates on how much the gear will cost. It is working to move the measures forward "as soon as possible," said Mateo.

Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch