“C5, There we see ourselves”, the series that reveals the bowels of the video surveillance system in Mexico City

The government of Mexico City, through its Center for Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact or simply known as C5, launched a series called “There we see you” in which the processes and ways in which the different emergency bodies work behind the program in the field of most ambitious urban safety in the world.

The audiovisual work will consist of 13 chapters of approximately half an hour in length that will be broadcast every Monday at 23:00 hours, through the official C5 channel on Youtube and Facebook. The project was done in collaboration with the work of Capital 21 (which will also broadcast the episodes), that is, the Digital Radio and Television System of Mexico City.

“It is a mechanism through which we are going to be able to bring experiences and stories to citizens since C5. In C5 there are 28 units that deal with civil and citizen protection emergencies. Many times we have had a hard time getting those stories to the public in Mexico City,” said Juan Manuel García, general coordinator of C5, during the presentation of the series.

The video surveillance system in the Mexican capital is composed of more than 35,000 cameras in service (not counting the more than 1,000 that authorities report failures), of which almost 14,000 have speakers for direct communication between citizens and the C5, and almost 11,000 are configured with the so-called aid.

“Through this effort that we are presenting 'Here we see you', we have found a mechanism with which we are going to be able to show how C5 operates, but above all, how these 28 units operate. Not only from these facilities, but from the countryside. You will be able to know the stories behind the attention, which is something that you don't normally have.

“People know what C5 does in a very macro way, but now they are going to meet the people who actually do the work, not only by name, but also by face. They are going to know the activities they carry out and the achievements that are achieved,” García told the press.

“When the idea for the program came up, we wanted to give technology and infrastructure a voice and a face because without the intuition of professionals, the common sense of operators and the will of everyone who works in this place, cameras, systems and artificial intelligence is a tool that would not work,” he said. Alonso Millán Zepeda, general director of the Public Media Service of Mexico City.

The origins of what is now C5 dates back to June 2009 when the Center for Emergency Response and Citizen Protection in Mexico City was created. A year later, the “Safe City” program began operating with the operation of video surveillance cameras with the aim of improving the response of the authorities to emergency situations in the megalopolis.

In 2015, CAEPCCM incorporated the LOCATEL service into its configuration to finally form the Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact Center of Mexico City, “C5″. Video monitoring, responding to emergency calls, receiving anonymous reports and reporting unlocated persons are some of the services offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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