A former commanding officer of the NYPD's School Safety Division has been indicted on federal bribery and wire fraud charges after allegedly accepting $35,000 in cash, luxury travel, and other perks from a Florida businessman angling to sell panic buttons to New York City's public schools.

Kevin Taylor pleaded not guilty on Thursday. Gene Roefaro, founder of the mobile panic alert company SaferWatch, faces the same charges but has not yet entered a plea.

According to AP News, the scheme, according to federal prosecutors, worked like this: Roefaro showered Taylor and Taylor's romantic partner with gifts — luxury hotels, airfare to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, helicopter tours, Broadway musicals, a medieval-themed dinner theater — and Taylor, in return, tried to steer an $11 million contract toward SaferWatch and helped secure a no-bid deal in 2023 to pilot the company's products inside the NYPD school safety division's command center.

Cash, helicopters, and a dinner theater. That was apparently the going rate for access to a city contract meant to protect children.

The 'Sugar Daddy' and His Investment

The indictment paints a picture not of some sophisticated influence operation but of a transactional arrangement that eventually soured. Roefaro, per the indictment, described himself as a:

"sugar daddy" who had "made a MAJOR investment and zero return"

By late 2023, frustration had apparently replaced generosity. Roefaro allegedly texted Taylor:

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

Days later, Taylor reportedly tried to put together a press conference announcing that his division would procure a tip line from SaferWatch. The event was later cancelled.

Roefaro's attorney offered a creative defense, calling it:

"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."

So Roefaro is simultaneously the briber and the victim. His own texts suggest a man who knew exactly what he was paying for and grew angry when the product wasn't delivered. That's not a shakedown. That's a deal gone bad between two willing participants.

Taylor Wasn't Just Working One Angle

The SaferWatch arrangement wasn't Taylor's only alleged side hustle. Prosecutors say that around the same time, he tried to solicit $75,000 in bribes from two businessmen connected to a company that sold bullet-resistant vests to police.

Those businessmen declined.

It's worth sitting with that for a moment. A commanding officer in a division responsible for the safety of schoolchildren was allegedly running parallel corruption schemes — one involving panic buttons for kids, the other involving body armor for cops. The tools meant to protect the most vulnerable were reduced to leverage for personal enrichment.

Another Chapter in the Adams Administration's Corruption Saga

Taylor's indictment lands in the middle of a rolling federal investigation that has carved through the former Adams administration like a buzzsaw. The probe into SaferWatch first surfaced publicly in September 2024 as part of a broader look at corruption among officials connected to former Mayor Eric Adams.

The wreckage is extensive:

• Two other NYPD officers have been charged with bribery in recent weeks
• A former housing official under Adams faces bribery charges
• A former chief advisor to Adams is the subject of an ongoing bribery case
• Two top Adams officials resigned after federal authorities searched their homes
• SaferWatch hired a consulting firm run by the brother of those two officials

Adams himself faced his own indictment in a separate bribery scheme involving luxury travel gifts. That case was later abandoned by the Trump administration.

The pattern is unmistakable. This wasn't one bad actor exploiting a gap in the system. This was a culture — an entire ecosystem of officials who apparently treated public service as a marketplace. Contracts for schools, equipment for officers, housing policy — all of it touched by the same rot.

The Real Cost

New York City's public schools serve over a million students. The question of how to keep them safe is not abstract. It is, for parents across the five boroughs, one of the most immediate and personal concerns they carry every morning when they send their kids out the door.

The School Safety Division exists precisely because that concern deserves institutional seriousness. Instead, prosecutors allege its commanding officer turned it into a personal ATM — securing no-bid contracts not because a product would protect children, but because a businessman had booked the right helicopter tour.

An $11 million contract. Panic buttons for schools. And the man allegedly steering the deal was busy cashing checks and visiting the Bahamas on the vendor's dime.

New Yorkers keep paying the taxes. The machine keeps eating.