Former NYPD official charged with taking bribes from company selling 'panic button' to city schools

NEW YORK — A former high-ranking official in the New York Police Department has been charged with accepting $35,000 in cash, luxury travel perks and other bribes from a Florida businessman seeking to sell panic buttons to the city's public schools and police.

In an indictment Thursday, federal prosecutors said Kevin Taylor attempted to steer an $11 million contract toward the company, SaferWatch, while serving as the commanding officer of the NYPD's School Safety Division. The company markets its product as a ''mobile panic alert system'' used for mass shootings and other emergencies.

In exchange, the company's founder, Gene Roefaro, showered Taylor and his romantic partner with gifts — including luxury hotels and airfare to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, helicopter tours, tickets to Broadway musicals and a ''medieval-themed dinner theater'' — along with multiple cash payments, prosecutors said.

Taylor pleaded not guilty to bribery and wire fraud charges on Thursday. An emailed inquiry to his attorney was not returned.

Roefaro is also facing charges, including bribery and wire fraud. He has not yet entered a plea. An attorney for Roefaro said it was ''puzzling and deeply concerning that the United States Attorney's Office has chosen to pursue charges against Geno, while at the very same time, alleging — and seeking to prove — that he was the victim of an extortionate shakedown."

The charges are the latest allegations of corruption and favor-trading lodged against officials appointed by the city's former mayor, Eric Adams, who faced his own indictment in a separate bribery scheme that also involved luxury travel gifts.

While the case against Adams was later abandoned by the Trump administration, at least some of the probes into his inner circle remain active, including an ongoing bribery case involving his former chief advisor. In recent weeks, federal prosecutors have announced bribery charges against two other NYPD officers and a former housing official under Adams.

Federal prosecutors allege that in 2023 Taylor helped secured a no-bid contract to pilot Roefaro's products within the command center of the NYPD's school safety division. But as the police official struggled to expand the program, Roefaro grew frustrated, at times describing himself as a ''sugar daddy'' who had ''made a MAJOR investment and zero return,'' according to the indictment.

''It's been fun, but it's not fun or funny anymore,'' Roefaro allegedly texted Taylor in late 2023. ''Our company (ME) needs to report something real and significant that is in place prior to end of year.''

Days later, Taylor tried to put together a press conference to announce his division would be procuring a tip line from Roefaro's company, prosecutors said. But that event was later cancelled.