Mexico City has more government video cameras in public spaces than any other city in the Americas. There are more than 83,000 cameras that continuously record the daily life of one of the most populated cities in the world. New York, by comparison, has 71,000.
These devices are distributed throughout 16,460 Video Surveillance Technology Systems (VTS)’s, which make up a total of 48,156 installed cameras. Also known as “C5 poles,” each of these systems can incorporate up to five lenses and a camera with a maximum resolution of up to 4K, which allows for a 360-degree view.
In addition to the VTS’s, there are 17,629 camera-equipped poles. Each one has two cameras installed, an emergency button, and a turret to issue visual and audible alerts in an emergency.
This video surveillance system helps to offer traffic alternatives, to follow up demonstrations or road accidents, and to track robbery suspects in real time. It is a fundamental piece in the security plan promoted by city authorities.
At the end of August, the government of Mexico City announced the purchase of more than 30,000 new video cameras to be installed throughout the city in order to strengthen the video surveillance strategy, as the recordings are a key tool of the Prosecutor’s Office to identify and prosecute suspects and better ensure guilty verdicts in court.
“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.
