Despite an increase in the budget and equipment, the Escudo Urbano Center for Coordination, Command, Control, Communications and Computing (C5) video surveillance system has not led to the arrest of more people or the recovery of more stolen vehicles.
Jalisco reported that, in 2019, the “C5 was an unfinished project: it operated at 50% of its capacity. and registered 80% progress in its implementation.” However, although in 2022 it was reported that the system is finished, the results are going down.
As a consequence of the participation of the C5 in high-impact events, there were 655 detainees between January and September in 2020. In the same time period this year, there were 589.
In addition, 1,936 vehicles that had been reported stolen in that period this were documented, a lower figure than in 2020 and 2021.
The state government said that an investment of almost 110 million pesos were allocated to the system this year.
According to the recent Fourth Report presented by Governor Enrique Alfaro, video surveillance would be strengthened in the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, and Jocotepec, “with the installation of 126 new cameras in 35 urban surveillance points, and four with license plate readers.” But it was not stated how many devices there are in total.
And in the budget reports of the Urban Shield, published in its Transparency sections, it is specified that, this year, its investment is projected to be more than 569 million pesos. In 2021 it was 420 million pesos.
César Castro, coordinator of the Council of Industrial Chambers of Jalisco (CCIJ), urged evaluation the system. And Miguel Landeros, president of the Mexican Council of Foreign Trade (Comce) of the West, described the system as a “very good” tool, but with challenges, such as updating the equipment, and reviewing the profiles of those who work on it, among other aspects.
Last October, at least two confrontations involving armed persons were documented: one in the commercial area of Puerta de Hierro and another in a restaurant in Colonia Providencia, in Guadalajara.
According to figures from the Center for Coordination, Command, Control, Communications and Computing of the State of Jalisco (C5), between January and September of this year, the system helped in 5,153 high-impact events, which required coordination, monitoring, and participation of various institutions of the three levels of government.
The coordination was with emergency care units, such as public security police stations, medical services, civil protection and fire units, the national guard, and metropolitan police, among others.
But, although the number of high-impact events this year is the highest ever recorded, there were only 589 people arrested. This means that people were arrested in only 11% of the events.
The main high-impact events were: injured by a firearm projectile (824 cases), deceased by a firearm projectile (602), deceased for various reasons (480), deprivation of liberty (273), deceased due to accidents or traumatic causes (243), seized vehicles (242), seized firearms (137), and human remains (110).
In 2021, the injured and deceased were also the main high-impact events. The National Catalog of Emergency Incidents establishes that the priority criterion allows standardizing the level with which emergencies must be attended, “considering that for each specific incident this priority may vary depending on the information obtained in the course of care of the incident.”
Number of people arrested with the support of the C5 system in Jalisco*
2019: 98
2020: 655
2021: 633
2022: 589
Vehicle Recoveries*
2019: 1,037
2020: 2,290
2021: 2,201
2022: 1,936
* from January to September of each year.
Source: Government of Jalisco
Equipment
In 2019, it was announced that there were 6,340 cameras, 300 license plate readers, 1,500 panic buttons, and 42 work stations, but the data was not updated in the last report.
Alfonso Partida Caballero, a member of the Security and Justice Observatory of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), said that the C5 has been a failure to stop criminals.
He said, “These types of systems work like this: they take the license plates from the vehicle, you put it in the device, and all the cameras immediately focus on looking for it. As soon as they detect it, it can be tracked in real time. This is how it works in Mexico City. In Jalisco, millions are being spent on its operation, and for what?”
Partida pointed out that it seems that the authorities are interested in the system not working. He said that, for example, the observatory has documented that the cameras have stopped working during some shootings in the commercial area of Puerta de Hierro.
Although more high-impact incidents have been reported in restaurants, these have not been added to the Help Button, since the same 240 places have been maintained since 2021.
Where there was growth is in downloads and users. Between January and September 2022, 91,495 downloads of the Botón de Auxilio application were registered, and there were 37,259 users: 31,643 in the residential modality, 1,947 in the commercial modality, and 483 in the health personnel modality. , 240 in restaurant mode, 38 in delivery truck mode, and 2,908 in school mode. And last year there were 34,025 users.
Users can access the service through applications from transport platforms, self-service companies, transport and public agencies with which collaboration agreements have been signed, such as DidiMobility México, 7 Eleven México, Cadena Comercial Oxxo, Farmacia Guadalajara, Súper Kiosko, and WalMart.
According to the state government, in 2022, the process of modernizing the Computer Assisted Dispatch System (CAD) began, in which emergency requests reported by residents through of means of contact, such as the single national emergency number 911 and the various modalities of the Help Button. “With this, it seeks to improve the care and management metrics of the assistance reports, which were made with a system that is more than 20 years old.”