Oct 10, 2024
Federal and city authorities raided the NYPD’s school safety division offices in Queens on Thursday as part of an investigation into city contracts, three sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News. Agents from the FBI and the Department of Investigation descended on the school safety division offices in Long Island City looking for documents, the sources said. The sources said they were in particular looking for records related to SaferWatch, a Florida tech firm that got paid nearly $50,000 by the school safety division last year to try out its flagship product, a panic button cellphone app, in five city schools. The sources said the raid is tied to the same probe ensnaring Tim Pearson, an ex-NYPD official who served as a senior adviser to Mayor Adams until he resigned this month after getting his electronics seized by the feds. A Department of Investigation spokeswoman declined to comment. The FBI didn’t return a request for comment. SaferWatch got business with NYPD school safety after it hired Terence Banks, a government consultant who is the younger brother of outgoing city Schools Chancellor David Banks and former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks. All three Banks brothers were raided by the feds last month as part of a corruption probe that’s looking into whether Adams administration officials were involved in influence peddling and kickbacks on city contracts. Thursday’s raid comes after The News first reported last month that federal authorities had served a search warrant on an employee of SaferWatch as part of a corruption probe. Kevin Taylor, an NYPD inspector who used to be the school safety division’s commanding officer, also got his cellphone taken by the feds Thursday, two sources close to the matter said. He has now been placed on modified duty, the NYPD confirmed. Taylor was the school safety division’s top cop last October, when he told the City Council that SaferWatch’s panic button app was about to be deployed in five schools. In February, Taylor was abruptly removed from the school safety division, ordered mid-week to vacate his post by a Friday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The school safety division raid comes after the feds indicted Adams last month on criminal charges alleging he solicited bribes from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors. He has pleaded not guilty and vowed to continue to be mayor, even as more than a dozen high-profile officials in his administration have resigned after becoming embroiled in the various corruption probes swirling City Hall. With Graham Rayman
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