“What is recommended is that when something happens, they go to open the folder and the next day request the video evidence, because [without an investigation file] they will not be able to access this information,” says Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, general coordinator of C5 CDMX.
In fact, he shared that they receive around 160 requests per day from people asking for the C5 recordings to present as evidence in court.
In other words, if an average of 640 investigation files are opened every day in Mexico City (232,476 per year, according to data from the 2024 National Census of State and Federal Prosecution of Justice), 25 percent of these have a recording from government cameras as evidence.
Although Mexico City’s video surveillance system is a tool to prevent and punish crimes, the city still registers the highest crime rate in the country, with 54,473 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. In a survey conducted in 2025 by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 75.6 percent of residents said they did not feel secure.
“The inhibition and prosecution of crime are complementary … All the world literature indicates it, all the data from all the public security secretariats around the world indicate it, and in the case of Mexico City, it is also obvious that there is more citizen confidence when there are more cameras, whether public or private,” Guerrero Chiprés says.
Despite the fact that the country’s capital is the most heavily monitored city in the continent, there is still a lot of territory to cover. Data shared by the head of C5 reveals that only a third of the city is covered by these cameras.
“Nowhere in the world does it happen [that there is surveillance in 100 percent of public spaces],” Guerrero Chiprés says. “That is why there must be contribution from the whole community. If the community does not participate with its own cameras and also with its civic view, [security] is impossible, because there are more than 63,000 blocks in the city, and we have a presence in 20,000.”
Enter the Spy Bunker
Strategically located in the busiest areas with the highest crime rates, the video surveillance cameras operate from Mexico City’s Command, Control, Computing, Communications, and Citizen Contact Center (C5 CDMX), a bunker that works 24/7, and where there is a permanent presence of representatives from 29 federal and local agencies, such as Mexico’s National Guard, the Navy, the Defense, and the Secretariats of Citizen Security.
Although C5 is primarily known for video surveillance, this space brings together different ways to follow up on complaints from residents.