Mexico. The thales company is working on the expansion of the most advanced urban security system in the world: the so-called "Safe City", a project born and created in Mexico by a multidisciplinary team of professionals from different countries that has demonstrated its profitability, reliability and ability to reduce the high levels of violence suffered by the capital.
According to Infodefensa, it is a network with more than 8,000 cameras that monitor and record the streets of Mexico City 24 hours a day, every day of the week. It works alongside hundreds of points for emergency calls and a fleet of drones. All the data is sent to state-of-the-art command centers where, since the beginning of the activity, more than one million incidents have already been registered, about 100,000 arrests and the reduction of a large number of crimes: 33% of high-impact crimes and 50% in vehicle theft.
The program was fully operational in 2012 along with two mobile command centers and 8,080 active cameras. The success was such that in April 2014 the Mexican authorities announced that they would double the magnitude of the program with the installation of 7,000 more cameras and 4,300 panic buttons or points for emergency calls.
Before this extension, which is currently underway, the "Safe City" programme had already been considered the most ambitious in the world in terms of urban safety, not only because of its size but also because of its scope.
"In a complex emergency situation or in large-scale events, the police can develop mobile command centers especially teams that maintain contact with the command center (C4I)," thales explains. "The system can also locate and identify vehicles on the main streets of the city thanks to its ability to read their license plates," they add.
Used to monitor population density and movements, the system can also provide security at major events, such as the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe, which attracts more than 6 million people each year.
In total, and once this second expansion is completed, Mexico City will have more than 15,000 cameras, 10,000 panic buttons, more than 10,000 speakers and one of the most complex urban security systems in the world.
