Mexico City is the most video-surveilled city in the Americas

“What is recommended is that when something happens, they go open the folder and the next day they ask for video evidence, because [without an investigation file] “They will not have access to this information,” says Salvador Guerrero Chibres, general coordinator of C5 CDMX.

In fact, he said they receive about 160 requests a day from people asking for C5 recordings to submit as evidence in court.

In other words, if an average of 640 investigative files are opened daily in Mexico City (232,476 per year, according to the 2024 National Census and Federal Prosecution data), 25% of them have recordings from government cameras as evidence.

Although Mexico City’s video surveillance system is a tool for preventing and punishing crimes, the city still has the highest crime rate in the country, with 54,473 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. In a 2025 survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 75.6 percent of the population said they did not feel safe.

“Crime prevention and prosecution are complementary… All the global literature points to that, all the data from all the public security secretariats around the world points to that, and in the case of Mexico City, it is also clear that there is more citizen confidence when there are more cameras, whether public or private,” says Guerrero Cebres.

Although the country’s capital is the most policed ​​city on the continent, there is still a lot of ground to cover. The data shared by the C5 chief reveals that only a third of the city is covered by these cameras.

“This doesn’t happen anywhere in the world [that there is surveillance in 100 percent of public spaces]“That’s why there has to be input from the entire community,” says Guerrero Chibres. If the community does not participate with its own cameras and also with its civic vision, [security] It is impossible, because there are more than 63,000 buildings in the city, and we have a presence in 20,000.”

Enter the spy hideout

The video surveillance cameras are strategically located in the busiest areas with the highest crime rates, and operate from the Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizens Center (C5 CDMX) in Mexico City, a 24/7 bunker, where there is a permanent presence of representatives from 29 federal and local agencies, such as the Mexican National Guard, Navy, Defense and Citizen Security Secretariats.

Although C5 is primarily known for video surveillance, this space brings together different ways of following up on residents’ complaints.