TIJUANA, Mexico -- Authorities in Tijuana have begun installing security cameras on the popular Avenida Revolucion in hopes of deterring crime.
The first of 15 cameras went up this week at the corner of Revolucion and Calle Octava. Police officers will monitor the cameras, which can rotate and
are protected by transparent domes.
A local business council and city agencies are paying $120,000 for the first phase of the project. The city hopes to install a total of 80 cameras in
high-crime areas. Dave - 8-20-2004 at 02:38 PM
Quote:
Police officers will monitor the cameras
Whooops! Mexitron - 8-20-2004 at 03:13 PM
El grande hermano is en Mexico ahorraJESSE - 8-20-2004 at 04:07 PM
Saw them installing them this morning, its my understanding that both the Police and Sindicatura will monitor them.
TIJUANA ? From unruly visitors to crooked cops, criminals will for the first time face the scrutiny of video surveillance cameras in the city's
heavily transited Avenida Revolucion district.
"We don't think that this will cause delinquents to turn into Brothers of Charity," said Mart?n Dom?nguez Rocha, Tijuana's director of public safety.
"But if you feel you're being watched, you begin to act differently."
The cameras will have zoom capacity, allowing them to record details such as license-plate numbers or facial features, and will be monitored 24 hours
a day at the police department's communications center. The images also will be displayed on the Internet, but will be available only to those with a
special access code, Dom?nguez said.
Other cities in Mexico have such systems, including Mexico City and Monterrey. Tijuana has cameras at the busy Cinco y Diez crossroads, but these will
be the first in the Avenida Revolucion district, the city's tourist-oriented shopping area.
The cameras' cost of $120,000, will be paid by the city's Business Coordinating Council from a special fund generated by payroll taxes.
All 15 cameras should be installed by end of next month, Dom?nguez said.
The Tijuana newspaper Frontera recently ran a front-page story on the cameras with the headline "Big Brother on Avenida Revolucion."
But Victor Clark, a Tijuana human-rights activist, said the cameras "are an instrument that can be useful and indispensable . . . it's a step that the
police are taking toward the modern era."
With less than four months left in his term, Mayor Jes?s Gonz?lez is not likely to carry out his administration's plans to expand the system to other
parts of the city.
But Jorge Hank Rhon, the city's mayor-elect, promised during his campaign that an extensive, citywide system of video cameras would be key to his
administration's anti-crime efforts.
