New eyes are keeping permanent watch over Hidalgo: a high-tech security bunker officially opened in the state this week.
The Control, Command, Communication, Computer, Quality and Intelligence Center — C5i for short — is located in the municipality of Zapotlán de Juárez, near the state capital, Pachuca.
Built on 36,836 square meters of land, the circular bunker has three different levels, two of which are underground, and the capacity to accommodate almost 300 employees.
The C5i will serve as the nerve center for the statewide security strategy known as Hidalgo Seguro (Safe Hidalgo).
The facility boasts a monitoring room with a video wall that can be divided into 510 separate screens. Security specialists will continually observe images sent to the center from more than 5,000 surveillance cameras located in different parts of Hidalgo.
They will notify police in cases of crime or emergency services when citizens require assistance.
The private sector has plans to install an additional 5,000 C5i-linked security cameras in Hidalgo to take the total to 10,000.
The center will also receive alerts from 1,255 panic buttons strategically-positioned in different parts of the state and 30,000 community alarms that have been installed in neighborhoods with high rates of crime.
In addition to state security personnel, officials from the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the Federal Police, Civil Protection and a range of other agencies will also be stationed at the bunker, which has been described as having the appearance of a flying saucer or a Star Wars spaceship.
As part of wider efforts to combat insecurity in Hidalgo, where petroleum theft in particular is a problem, the state has put new camera-equipped police cars into service, 350 for state police and 143 for municipal forces.
Twenty new drones and a tactical aircraft are also supporting anti-crime operations in the central Mexican state.
The C5i replaces the C4 center, which at the start of Governor Omar Fayad’s administration in September 2016 was operating with just 64 cameras.
At yesterday’s inauguration, which President López Obrador also attended, Fayad said that the C5i has the “most sophisticated” information system of any security center in Latin America.
Although fuel theft is a problem, in which at least seven criminal organizations are engaged, the state hasn’t seen anywhere near the levels of violence in Guanajuato, where the crime is believed to be behind much of the violence that made that state the deadliest in Mexico last year.
In contrast, Hidalgo recorded the third lowest per-capita homicide rate in Mexico last year behind only Yucatán and Aguascalientes.
Source: El Sol de México (sp)
