“Safe City” Mexico City

“Safe City” Mexico City

אילוסטרציה

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

Illustration
Illustration

The most advanced security system in the world

The Thales group is working on expanding the world’s most advanced urban security system, referred to as the “Safe City” project. The project was set up in Mexico by a multidisciplinary team of professionals from different countries and has proven to be profitable, reliable and to decrease the violence levels suffered by the capital.

“Safe City” constitutes a network of more than 8,000 surveillance cameras which record the streets of Mexico Federal District 24 hours a day every day of the week. It operates hundreds of panic buttons to make emergency calls from, as well as a fleet of drones. All data is sent to command centers. Since the beginning of its activity more than a million incidents have dealt with, about 100,000 arrests have been made, and there has been an overall reduction of a large number of offenses: 33% decrease in crimes of great impact and 50% decrease in vehicle theft.

Register to iHLS Israel Homeland Security

The program became fully operational in 2012, with two mobile command centers and 8,080 active cameras. The success was such that in April 2014 the authorities in Mexico announced they would double the size of the program by installing 7,000 more cameras and panic buttons or 4,300 points for emergency calls.

Even before this expansion, which is currently underway, the “Safe City” program is already considered the world’s most ambitious urban safety program, for both its size and scope.

“In a complex emergency or large-scale events, the police can develop mobile command centers with special teams that maintain contact with the control unit,” explained a representative from Thales. “The system can also locate and identify vehicles on the city’s main streets due to its ability to read license plates,” he added.

Used in order to monitor population density and movement, the system can also provide security at major events like the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe, which attracts annually more than 6 million people.

In total and after this second extension, Mexico Federal District will have 15,000 cameras, 10,000 panic buttons, more than 10,000 speakers and one of the world’s most complex urban security systems.