New Bedford signs contract to install five emergency blue light towers downtown

New Bedford plans to install emergency blue light towers downtown, giving residents and visitors a visible call station that directly connects to 911 services as part of a broader effort to improve public safety.

The emergency call stations, commonly found on college campuses and increasingly used in parks and downtown areas across the country, would allow people to summon help with the push of a button. City officials say the towers are intended to complement existing public safety measures by providing another way to quickly reach emergency responders.

“Those stations allow people to contact emergency services and public safety whether it be the Police Department, the Fire Department, or if somebody has a medical emergency, they just pull the switch on the station. It’s got a blue light that identifies it, and people see that and they know that we’re paying attention,” Police Chief Jason Thody told Light columnist Jack Spillane earlier this summer. 

Thody also wrote in an emailed statement that the towers are part of the city’s Downtown Safety Initiative. 

“The emergency contact stations are just one part of our broader efforts to enhance safety in the downtown area,” Thody wrote. “They complement our downtown police substation at the SRTA [bus] terminal, where officers are assigned to patrol downtown on foot, engage with residents, visitors, and business owners, and proactively address public safety and quality-of-life concerns. Together, these initiatives increase our visibility, improve access to police services, and help create a safer, more welcoming downtown for everyone.”

Alongside the blue lights, the Police Department aims to have more physical presence in the downtown areas, Thody said. He specifically mentioned Custom House Square park, where many unhoused individuals utilize the space.  

“I think that’s what matters the most, is that the folks that are down here that are hanging out know that we’re paying attention,” Thody said, describing how the blue lights can serve as a visible reminder that public safety resources are available. 

The city plans to install five emergency blue lights in the downtown area, but, “the installation locations are still being finalized and remain subject to change,” said Holly Huntoon, spokesperson for the New Bedford Police Department, in an email. Huntoon also said the timeline for the project was unknown.

The contract for the project was recently awarded, according to Huntoon, but she did not share which company was chosen. The Light asked a representative from the New Bedford purchasing department about the contract, but she said no information was available. 

The Light reached out to Black Wave, a company based in Virginia that submitted a bid for the project, but did not receive a response. Patrick Rossetti, general manager of Transportation Solutions & Lighting, a Florida-based company that submitted the only other publicly-listed bid, said his company was not awarded the contract. 

Downtown residents and business owners react

Emergency blue light towers are designed to connect callers directly with emergency dispatchers. Some towers use cellular service rather than hardwired telephone lines, allowing them to be installed almost anywhere, according to Rossetti, one of the bidding contractors.

Cities program the towers to call 911, while colleges and universities often program them to contact campus police.

The Light asked people downtown how they felt about the blue light emergency towers. Reactions were largely supportive, though many questioned how effective the towers would be without a strong emergency response.

Blaine Bacchiocchi, owner of New Bedford Fiber Arts, says she has “been in situations where I had to very much make sure the people around me are being safe and aware,” even before opening a business in the downtown area. 

Bacchiocchi questioned whether the towers address larger issues facing downtown, saying that public safety has been an issue “forever.” She said the stations could benefit young people, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, but argued that many public safety concerns stem from poverty, addiction and unmet social service needs.

“I think it’s a net positive,” Bacchiocchi said. She added that emergency response should be paired with investments in mental health and social services.

Jake Ormonde, 36, who works downtown, said he likes the idea of making emergency assistance easier to access, but believes the towers’ effectiveness will depend on how police respond once officers arrive.

“Any chance to get extra help in an emergency situation is helpful,” he said. “Everyone deserves safety.”

JJ Johnson, a New Bedford resident who works as a sales director for a healthcare startup, said he does not see police patrolling the downtown area. While supportive of the blue light towers initiative, Johnson said he was concerned the call stations might take over the jobs of police officers. 

Chino Simmons, a barista at Ground Floor Coffee, believes the current policing system is ultimately ineffective, but said the blue lights would give people access to more aid, especially those without cellular service. 

Do the blue light towers work? 

Rossetti, the contractor who bidded on installing New Bedford’s blue light towers, said they serve both as an emergency resource and a visible crime deterrent.

Though nearly everyone carries a cellphone, Rossetti said that the emergency towers can discourage crime by increasing the perception of police presence. 

Rice University in Houston, Texas, installed blue light emergency towers in 2010, and reported that on-campus burglary rates decreased 68% the following year. Despite this, one Rice student wrote, “blue-light emergency phones do more to make students feel safe than they do to actively prevent crime.”

Similarly, after the University of Delaware installed these call towers, 90% of students reported feeling safer, even if towers weren’t used frequently. 

Some companies supervise the calls made on their towers, said Rossetti. “Our towers are monitored, so we get to listen to the calls. And they actually are used,” he said.

Rossetti, whose company has recently installed towers in Ellington, Connecticut, said communities have expanded their use into parks, courthouse parking lots and downtown districts. Beyond making people feel safer, the towers provide emergency assistance to people who don’t have a phone or cannot safely use one. 

Bristol Community College’s Fall River campus installed blue light towers as a part of its campus preparedness initiative. But New Bedford would be among the first cities in Massachusetts to install these modern, blue light towers on public streets. (Boston has the oldest fire-box alarm system in the country, according to reporting from WCVB, with public fire alarms up to 170 years old that connect to fire stations and emergency services.) 

New Bedford already has blue light towers installed outside of St. Luke’s Hospital. Approximately seven towers can be found around the property, according to The Light’s reporting. (A representative from St. Luke’s hospital did not respond to The Light’s request for comment.) 

Blue light emergency phones have long been fixtures on college campuses, but some municipalities have begun to adopt similar systems in public spaces.

Julien Pedro and Samantha McCarthy are summer interns with the New Bedford Light, as part of the South Coast Internship designed for local students. Email Julien at jpedro@newbedfordlight.org and Samantha at smccarthy@newbedfordlight.org