Mexico City is the most video surveillance metropolis in the Americas
It is recommended that when something happens, they go open the folder and ask for the video evidence the next day, because [without an investigation file] They cannot access this information, says Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, general coordinator of C5 CDMX.
In fact, he shared that they get about 160 requests a day from people asking for C5 recordings to be presented as evidence in court.
In other words, if an average of 640 investigative cases are opened per day in Mexico City (232,476 cases per year, according to 2024 state and federal prosecutors’ national census data), 25 percent of those cases have government camera footage as evidence.
Although Mexico City’s video surveillance system is a tool for crime prevention and punishment, the city still has the highest crime rate in the country, with 54,473 crimes per 100,000 people. In a 2025 survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 75.6 percent of residents said they did not feel safe.
Guerrero Chiprés says: “Crime prevention and prosecution are complementary… All the world literature shows this, all the data from all the public security secretariats around the world show it, and in the case of Mexico City, it’s also obvious that when there are more cameras, both public and private, the citizens trust more.
Despite the fact that the country’s capital is under the strictest supervision of the city on the continent, there is still a lot of territory to cover. Information shared by the C5 chief shows that only a third of the city is covered by these cameras.
This does not happen anywhere in the world [that there is surveillance in 100 percent of public spaces]”That’s why it has to involve the whole community,” says Guerrero Chiprés. If the community does not participate with its cameras as well as with its civic gaze, [security] Impossible, because there are over 63,000 blocks in the city and we are present in 20,000 blocks.
Enter the Spy Bunker
Strategically located in the most congested areas with the highest crime rates, video surveillance cameras operate from the Mexico City Command, Control, Computing, Communications, and Citizen Call Center (C5 CDMX), a 24/7 shelter staffed by representatives from Mexico’s 29 federal and local agencies, the National Defense, and the Mexican Navy. Citizen security
Although C5 is primarily known for video surveillance, this space brings together various ways to track resident complaints.
