Latin America. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is one of the most popular tools of surveillance. According to data from the Statista portal, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru are the countries with the highest number of these devices in the region.
It is not gratuitous that there is a relationship of great symmetry in the rankings that classify the cities with the highest incidence of crime or recognized as "unsafe", with those that register a greater number of closed circuit television. Especially, when doing a review in Latin America.
Well, in this region there is a marked tendency to seek to secure the spaces of the cities, record the events of altercations, generate alerts in the police forces and look for evidence for judicialization, from the data collected with video surveillance devices.
Latin American Statistics
If we take into account the "number of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in selected cities in Latin America in 2020", we find Mexico City in first place with 87,000, this also because it has an area of 1,485 km², an issue that demands a very wide coverage.
In second place is Guadalajara with 25,672 cameras, followed in third place by Buenos Aires with 15,700. Rio de Janeiro ranks fourth with 14,000 and Lima would be in fifth place with 7,547 such devices.
Now, if you review this same number of CCTV cameras, but taking into account their amount per square kilometer (Latin America in 2020), although Mexico City has the largest number of cameras, it is Guadalajara that registers the highest density per square kilometer, a total of 170.
The second place is taken by Buenos Aires with 77.34; the third place is occupied by Mexico City with 58.59 CCTV cameras per square kilometer. In fourth place is Bogotá with 20,96 and, in fifth place Santo Domingo with 13,11.
That is, the large constant between the number of devices and their distribution per square kilometer is headed by Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, in that order. While, looking at the statistics in the images that accompany this text, we can notice that the countries that follow that ranking are Colombia and Peru.
Latin America vs. the world
According to the indicators of safe cities presented by The Economist, corresponding to 2021, an edition in which 60 urban centers around the globe were evaluated, measured in 5 large areas (digital security, health, infrastructure, personnel and environment), all cities in Latin America were below the general average.
This is easy to understand if one takes into account that Latin America is an area highly affected by various conflicts, such as social inequality and common crime, which have worsened due to the incidence of drug trafficking and organized crime, two other problems with deep and complex roots to address, which also affect episodes of violence and insecurity in cities.
So, it is consistent that Santiago de Chile, the Latin city that obtained the best rating in this report, with 65.3 out of 100 possible points, does not occupy the first places in number of closed circuit television cameras, where it has only 7.23 per square kilometer.
In second place in this study is Buenos Aires (Argentina) with 64.9 points, Rio de Janeiro with 61.8 and Sao Paulo at 61.7 (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia) with 60.8 and Mexico City with 60.3. Occupying positions 33, 34, 39, 40, 41 and 42 respectively.
Finally, it should be noted that the city that occupied the lowest score in Latin America was Caracas with 40.5 points in position 58. Which does not record data on ccTV installation on the Statista portal, but it does occupy the third place in the "Ranking of the most dangerous cities in the world in 2022, by homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants".
