Thales, in partnership with Telmex, a leading telecommunications provider in Mexico and Latin America, has once again been selected by Mexico City to integrate a further 7,000 video surveillance cameras to protect citizens as part of the Ciudad Segura1 project. Under this new contract, Mexico City will double the capacity of its urban security system, the most advanced of its kind in the world.

Ciudad Segura is a unique urban video surveillance project to improve security across the metropolis and protect citizens from crime, terrorism, attacks on strategic sites, natural disasters, and other threats.

The deployment of a further 7,000 video surveillance cameras, as well as panic buttons, loudspeakers, and law enforcement systems, will strengthen the existing capability, which includes over 8,000 cameras installed under the initial contract signed in 2009.

In a major emergency situation or during large-scale events, police can deploy specially equipped mobile command centers that maintain contact with the central command center (C4I2). The system can also locate or identify vehicles in the city’s main streets thanks to its ability to read number plates.

Used to monitor crowd density and movements, the system can also provide comprehensive security coverage at major events, in particular during the annual pilgrimage to the Basilica de Guadalupe, which attracts more than 6 million people and is the second-largest pilgrimage in the Christian world.

Five years after the Ciudad Segura project was launched, the results speak for themselves:

• A reduction in crime of over 32%,
• Average police response time down from 15 min. in 2009 to less than ?4 min. today,
• Over 1 million incidents handled by the system, leading to more than 102,000 arrests. […]