Mexico. After 18 months of operation, the Monitoring Center of the Municipal Public Security Directorate of San Pedro Cholula, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, stopped the theft of sacred art in the 14 main churches of the town, through surveillance carried out by 28 video cameras.
This was stated by the head of the office of the Ministry of Public Security, Isidro Tecayehuatl Valdés, who said that the last theft of sacred art that was carried out in Cholula was in May 2010, when five sculptures of saints disappeared from the temple of San Gregorio Zacapechpan, without being able to find those responsible.
In a visit to this center, by the officer José Alberto Tlapapal Ruiz, the operation of the 28 fixed cameras, installed in Catholic temples, dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, was verified. However, it drew attention that the devices installed in the Guadalupe Sanctuary and the San Gabriel Convent, to monitor the activities inside, are not working, due to a technical failure of the tower that emits the signal.
Tecayehuatl Valdés stressed that in total 35 video cameras were installed, seven more cameras that monitor the "red lights" and the busiest public spaces of the municipality and its auxiliary boards.
However, he considered that in the municipality it needs 10 more cameras, to reinforce security in some strategic points.
Meanwhile, he said, the most important spaces are covered, such as Soria Park, the Pyramid of Cholula and the center of the town, with the aim of reducing criminal acts and vandalism in the communities.
