Argentina. In 5 years, Vicente López placed more than 800 cameras on the streets and became an international reference. The municipality installed cameras at bus stops and inside local prevention vehicles to create a comprehensive and effective video surveillance system.
Vicente López, a neighboring municipality of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, plans to install its thousandth video surveillance camera this year as part of an innovative project in public security that includes the construction of 10 local prevention detachments and a local police force with approximately 500 police officers by the end of 2016.
With only 80 cameras in 2011, the city began to have anti-vandalism cameras at bus stops of the main local transport system, the Metrobus, connecting Vicente López with the Federal Capital, in addition to the incorporation of cameras in the main school routes (Community School Corridors) to guarantee the safety of students.
Extending its prevention capacity, the municipality of Vicente López also equipped local prevention mobiles with 160 specific cameras for vehicular use and that transmit images to the Urban Monitoring Center (CMU) - an innovative technology even in countries with more developed economies. The cameras are resistant to impacts, vibrations and shocks. This set of actions is transforming the Municipality into one of the boldest public safety projects in South America.
The most obvious part of this project includes high-resolution IP cameras, installed on public premises and on the streets. The city designed a network of digital IP cameras (most of them are from Axis Communications, creator of the IP camera), which replaces old analog systems.
The impact of this image quality on the operation of the city was immediate: the initial plan, which provided for 500 cameras, was expanded to 700 devices. Immediately, the system received a reinforcement with AXIS Q6000-E technology, a camera that has 4 full HD lenses with the ability to view an area equivalent to 4 football fields, while simultaneously offering a zoom of details of the scene without losing the entire vision. This technology is the same one being used by the Military Police of São Paulo, in Brazil. Thanks to continuous 360-degree vision, there is no risk of stopping visualizing an event just because the camera lens is turned in another direction.
With the real-time registration of the entire city, the authorities were able to reduce the waiting time of citizens on several occasions, as well as prevent incidents in traffic. "With this state-of-the-art Axis camera system, we make our neighbors feel safe and that we can respond quickly to any incident that could happen, be it a crime, a traffic discussion or the identification of suspects," they reported from the Secretariat of Security of Vicente López.
The current Secretary of Security of Vicente López, Santiago Espeleta, and the Undersecretary of Security, Martín Gasulla, have received delegations from other cities and countries interested in reproducing the experience.
