Transcript: Mayor Adams Expands Public Safety Communications With ‘NYC Public Safety’ Account on Citizen App to Keep New Yorkers Safe and Informed

July 20, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Morning. Such an important announcement we're making today. Everyone knows how much I feel about using technology to keep our city safe. When you look at when we came into office, we were basically patrolling our city, and our public safety apparatus was dealing with an antiquated model of only surface patrol and surface activation. Now you look at not only the use of drones to patrol our city at large gatherings through the sky, as well as on the ground, but also using technology like the Citizen App.  

The Citizen App is an important piece of apparatus, and using our technology to go about not only notifying New Yorkers right away when there is a dangerous incident, but also keeping New Yorkers engaged. It is extending our reach of allowing New Yorkers to keep their communities safe every day. Public safety has always been my North Star. It is something I talked about over and over again. It is crucial that communities are safe, particularly in our NYCHA housing.  

We're witnessing a decrease in crime throughout NYCHA. Many of our PSAs, our local police stations, in NYCHA housing, you're seeing a safer environment where families can come out and enjoy the communities that they are in. We can't do it alone. We really have to thank our partners, particularly the presidents of many of our NYCHA housing locations.  

We're joined today, James is the president here. We want to thank you. We're going to bring you up in a moment so you can tell your thing, but really thank you. Presidents all over NYCHA have been really partners with us in keeping the quality of life in the right direction.  

So, year after year, we've broken record after record when it comes down to public safety. We have a record low of [shootings]. Major crime is down year to date. You think about it, six months into the year, and really the seven months into the year, for the first six months we have the lowest number of shooters and homicides in the recorded history of the city. And you add that to the over 22,000 illegal guns we've removed off our streets. That's the combination. We believe you can't shoot it if you can't have it, and that is the cross-pollination of the approach to public safety that we will continue to engage in.  

But still, we have to work more. We have to go deeper and harder to make sure we go after dangerous people, particularly those repeated offenders that repeatedly abuse the city and abuse the communities that they are in. Today we're launching our public safety account through the Citizen app to provide New Yorkers with real-time public safety information.  

This account will work to communicate with more than 3 million of these users on the Citizen app throughout the five boroughs, similar to other social media channels that we use, but it's faster, more accurate, and it gets timely information to residents. And it will immediately get out the information that will keep New Yorkers safe, especially during emergencies.  

This account will also come at the four-letter word we love in New York, free. This will allow us to share verified incident information in real time with no cost to New Yorkers. It will ensure critical information reaches New Yorkers where and when it matters most. Now, when you put this account with our NotifyNYC that has over a million users, it is a continuous flow of keeping New Yorkers up to date during emergencies.  

The New York City public safety account will be able to send push notifications to users across the city based on neighborhood, zip code, or borough. Whether you're talking about tips to prevent against crime patterns, alerts in anticipation of weather emergencies, or updates on high-profile incidents, this is a method that we will be able to use. And the information New Yorkers need to feel safe and stay informed as they go through their days.  

This account also will allow us to ensure that our continuous investment in technology on how we ensure that New Yorkers use their personal devices to be part of the public safety apparatus. And so, today's announcement is just another way our administration is leveraging the latest technology to keep New Yorkers safe.  

And as a city, we led the nation in utilizing, as I stated, drone technology and other technology to ensure that New Yorkers stay up to date. We've invested $1.6 million to equip bodegas with emergency buttons to combat retail theft and a direct connection to the local precinct. So, every day and everywhere, we're not just getting stuff done for New Yorkers in the five boroughs. We're keeping New Yorkers safe.  

And I want to bring on the assistant deputy mayor who assisted in getting this account up and running and has all the information about it, assistant deputy mayor for Public Safety, Mona Suazo. Mona? 

Assistant Deputy Mayor Mona Suazo, Public Safety: Good morning, everyone. As someone who has spent my career in law enforcement and public safety, I know that public safety is much more than police work. When New Yorkers have accurate, timely information, they feel safe. And that's a big part of building trust between communities and the people who serve them.  

Our goal in using this account is to keep people informed with verified information. That includes things like safety tips about emergent scams or crime patterns, public safety announcements to help people stay safe, like during extreme heat events, and major updates, like when we make an arrest in a high-profile case. These are the kinds of updates that help people feel connected, aware, and informed.  

Millions of New Yorkers already use the Citizen app to stay aware of what's happening in their neighborhood and to receive alerts on any incidents in the area they're in. We want to build on that and provide more context, more clarity, and more follow-ups so that people aren't just seeing what's happening, they have a better understanding of how it might impact them and how the city is responding to these incidents.  

It's about turning awareness into knowledge and knowledge into confidence that New York City's public safety team is out here doing the work every single day. And this is also another example of how this administration and the city leverages technology and utilizes it as a tool to better serve New Yorkers, helping us reach more people and arm them with the information they need.  

We are excited to add this tool to our toolbox to continue communicating directly with New Yorkers and keeping them informed of what the city is doing to keep them safe. And now, I'm happy to introduce the president of the Cypress Hills Houses Tenant Association, James Alcivar. 

James Alcivar, President, Cypress Hills Houses Tenant Association: Good morning, everyone. My name is James Alcivar, president of NYCHA's Cypress Hills Tenant Association. I grew up right across the street at City Line Houses, and I've spent most of my life in this neighborhood.  

My early years were filled watching the older generation of leaders serve residents of the community, doing everything they could to keep the neighborhood safe and thriving. Their leadership and dedication inspired me to go down the path of public service and help the hardworking people of Cypress Hills as TA president. I also wanted to represent a younger generation of leaders, and we were serving our younger residents well, too.  

Safety, as the mayor and deputy mayor mentioned, is critical to me, and the residents of Cypress Hills Houses, both the numbers and feelings of safety. When I speak with my tenants, one of the main concerns that they bring up is safety, and a big part of that is knowing about any emergency or public safety incidents so they can stay out of harm's way.  

The city's new account on Citizen will give New Yorkers more peace of mind through alerts from rarefied agencies. Knowledge is power, and staying informed is a big part of staying safe. Thank you all for joining, and on behalf of the residents of Cypress Hills Houses, we appreciate the work being done to keep New York safe. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. I also want to thank Inspector Edwards for his attention to detail and part of our desire to bring down crime and public housing. NYCHA deserves the same level of quality policing, and we're witnessing that every day.  

Question: Any update on yesterday's Chinatown accident? 

Mayor Adams: We know we have two losses of life. It appears that it was excessive speed. Two people are in custody. An unfortunate incident. No one should lose their life in that manner. We are having the incident is coming under investigation, and the DA will determine what's the outcome of it. But it's just a really unfortunate incident. But from what it appears, the rate of speed was pretty high.  

Question: Speaking on the incident from yesterday, I’m seeing the drivers of New York City, I’m seeing a consistency of reckless driving all over the [inaudible] area. Speeding in a lot of different areas. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of accidents recently. So, what is the city doing to account for that? 

Mayor Adams: Well we have record levels of decreasing fatalities, record levels. And I'm with you, and we agree. We have stepped up enforcement because speeding is one of the top causes of vehicle fatalities and vehicle deaths.  

And so, our goal is to ensure many levels of what we call street calming. We reshape many of our intersections where many of the turning incidents have happened, where people are making turns. We've decreased the speed limit among our mopeds and motor two wheelers. We decreased it to 15 miles an hour. We have been holding a great deal of enforcement around those reckless drivers.  

And so, it's a constant reminder for every New Yorker, a vehicle can be a weapon if it's used incorrectly, as we witnessed what appeared to have happened a few days ago. And so, the Police Department is doing their job. DOT is doing their job of doing traffic calming measures in our streets. Everything from speed bumps to traffic signs and slow down drivers.  

But it's going to take New Yorkers as well. We have to slow down and stop the reckless driving that we're experiencing. So, your observation is a good one and it’s our goal to continue to drive down these fatalities. Okay, alright. Thank you. 

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