Under a program called Ventanas Ciudadanas, Puebla keeps its residents safe with the Security Center Omnicast IP video surveillance and the Stratocast cloud solutions.
Puebla is the fourth most prominent city in Mexico with a population of over 3 million people. Under a program called Ventanas Ciudadanas, Puebla keeps its residents safe with the Security Center Omnicast IP video surveillance and the Stratocast cloud solutions. The program also encourages citizens and the police to work together to further enhance citywide security.
The company
Puebla, known as the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is the fourth largest city in Mexico. The city’s metropolitan area has seen a rise in population, with over three million citizens now calling Puebla home. One of the main objectives for the city, set by Mayor Luis Banck Serrato, is to guarantee peace and security for all residents. The city plans on doing this with a collaborative approach, where citizens and authorities come together to fight crime.
The challenge
Municipal, state and federal governments in Mexico are looking for solutions to help counteract the rising crime levels. In Puebla’s case, 75 percent of the community stated that they felt threatened by crime. The continuous growth in population has added to the challenge. Authorities were also dealing with limited operational staff and resources. Part of the plan to improve safety was to install user-friendly technology for both citizens and authorities, in hopes that this would help expand community participation.
The solution
Citizen involvement: If a crime occurs, a citizen can easily activate an alarm through an app on a mobile phone, a panic button in a store, or a button on a street pole.
Responding with confidence: When the alarm is activated, a live video feed is displayed for an operator in the emergency center. They can see the exact location of the alarm as well as nearby resources on a city map.
Mobile access for police: The nearest police officer is notified of a crime through the Security Center Mobile app. They can see exactly where the notification is coming from, so they can quickly respond.
Returns on the investment: By reducing response times to an incident from 40 minutes to as little as 3 to 5 minutes, government expenses are kept to a minimum. Police are able to respond faster without needing more resources.
Results
To improve public safety, Ventanas Ciudadanas was designed as a collaborative video surveillance program where citizens would participate as key players. The program is built on the
Genetec Security Center unified platform and the Stratocast cloud-based video system. It also includes an intelligent alert system and backup of video information using the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
If a crime occurs, a citizen can activate an alarm using an app in their phone or by pressing a panic button in a store or on a street pole. Operators in the emergency control center, as well as the nearest police officer, receive the alarm with live video to respond quickly and safely. The designed solution reduced costs by 400 percent compared to traditional video surveillance projects and offers 200 percent more systems given the same budget.