New York state retailers required to have 911 panic buttons starting in 2027

A new law in New York state mandates that retailers with 500 or more employees nationwide have panic buttons that immediately call the nearest 911 answering point, starting on Jan. 1, 2027.

The bill was signed into law as the Retail Worker Safety Act by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, on Thursday.

In addition to installed or wearable panic buttons, the law also requires employers with 10 or more employees to “develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence,” requires the New York Department of Labor to “produce a model workplace violence prevention training program” and requires employers to provide training.

The program-based provisions of the law will go into effect in early March 2025.

Organized labor approves of the new law, citing specifically shootings at a West Hempstead, New York, Stop and Shop in 2021 and at a Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo in 2022.

“The preventative measures this law provides will help stop violence and harassment before it starts, but even more importantly, will more safely assist workers in getting help quickly in the event of an emergency. From West Hempstead to Buffalo, union workers have suffered grave losses to senseless store shootings,” Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Applebaum said in a release.

An union survey of members found that 80% feared the possibility of an active shooter in their workplace and that nearly two-thirds of all respondents had been intimidated or verbally harassed by a manager, customer or colleague in the past year.

Retailers and associated trade groups, however, have previously opposed the measure, particularly the installation of panic buttons. Walmart, for example, is worried the panic buttons will be inundated with false alarms.

“Eight out of 10 times somebody thinks something’s going on, there’s actually not,”  Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, told Reuters in June.

Other groups such as the National Retail Federation and the Food Industry Alliance of New York State say the new law does not do enough to stop theft recidivists.

“The costly mandates proposed in the bill — including the installation of panic buttons — will do little, if anything, to address recidivists entering stores with the intent to engage in illegal activity such as shoplifting and assault,” the two groups wrote in a May 28 letter, according to Reuters.