Police in Irapuato, Guanajuato, have begun using drones to fight the high levels of crime that continue to plague the city.
Just a few days after the municipal Secretariat of Citizens Security commenced crime prevention, detection and response tasks with four drones, it has already managed to thwart one serious offense.
According to a report by the newspaper El Universal, the 911 emergency service received a call at approximately 10:00am Tuesday about an abduction by armed men of a resident of the Villas de Irapuato neighborhood.
Police launched an air and ground search for the vehicle used in the kidnapping and a drone successfully tracked it down.
Once the kidnappers became aware that they were under aerial surveillance, they abandoned the SUV they were traveling in, along with their victim, near the border between the municipalities of Irapuato and Romita.
Police were deployed to the location where they found the victim still inside the vehicle and recovered some of the perpetrators’ personal objects. The evidence was later turned over to the Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office.
Although the kidnappers realized that they were being watched by a drone, Irapuato Police Chief Pedro Cortés Zavala said that everyday citizens won’t notice the operation of the unmanned aerial vehicles because they will be used discreetly.
“People won’t see them working, that’s what it’s about, they should be operations that people don’t see. . .” he said.
Cortés said that authorities are awaiting another two drones for preventing crime and supporting police operations.
Although stressing that their use won’t solve the crime problem in Irapuato, which has recently earned notoriety as one of Mexico’s most violent cities, he claimed that drones will allow police officers to “work with greater safety.”
Municipal police have also recently taken possession of two interceptor cars and an armored Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.
According to official data analyzed by the crime monitoring website elcri.men, Irapuato was the 45th most violent municipality in Mexico in 2019.
There were 362 homicides last year out of more than 3,500 in Guanajuato, which was Mexico’s most violent state.
Source: El Universal (sp)
