Fighting crime in Mexico, gadget at a time

The bad guys have come up with countless ways to assault, rob, threaten, maim, and kill the good people of this city. With crime a fixation here, there is money to be made for businesses that can help protect Mexico City residents from the dangers they face every day. Safety-conscious (and typically well-to-do) residents started with private security guards, closed-circuit cameras, and alarms, but as the criminals raise their game, so have the companies showing their wares at this year’s Security Expo. The Chicago Tribune’s Oscar Avila writes that with an array of gadgets that would impress the crew on “CSI,” company representatives had a message for Mexican criminals: Bring it on. “You have to be on the cutting edge in the face of all these crooks,” said Misael Bravo, systems manager for Uno Technology. “Otherwise, they have the advantage.” Case in point: Bravo’s company sells a closed-circuit camera that can be installed in a business or car to send live video feeds to a client’s cell phone. The devices cost about $2,500, and he has already received about 600 orders. Many Mexicans, he said, can not relax unless they know their cars, homes or businesses are safe. That means keeping tabs, even if they are at dinner or in bed. Eric Jackson, applications engineer for the California-based FLIR Systems and on his first visit to Mexico City, said he was struck by the electric fences and guards at so many homes. That led him to think that the locals aren’t satisfied with measly security cameras. Enter FLIR’s thermal infrared imaging cameras, which detect body heat from a potential intruder. They are normally used by law enforcement and the military, but last year FLIR began selling them to commercial clients. Mexico City, Jackson says, could be a gold mine.

It is hard to say how much the focus on security in Mexico is based on reality. A study from the Citizens Institute for the Study of Insecurity found that a quarter of Mexico City residents said they had been crime victims in 2005. Mexico also had higher per capita rates of violent robbery than the United States or any European nation, according to a recent UN survey. At the same time, tawdry television shows and tabloid newspapers splash grisly photos of the latest murders and stoke residents’ fears. “Generally, the Mexican’s perception of insecurity is worse than the reality. It is exaggerated,” said Luis de la Barreda, the institute’s executive director. “In any case, however, we are experiencing a very difficult situation.” Sandra Hernandez, editor of Xtrem Secure, a Mexican magazine that covers the security industry, said many security firms are seeing annual revenue increases approach 25 percent. At the Security Expo here last week, companies from around the world were seeking to offer Mexicans a much-needed sense of security. And to get a cut of the pie. Seog Woo Lee, president of the Korean-owned Wintech, had been marketing a coating for windows that renders them difficult to break. In most countries, clients put them on their home windows, in place of bars, to deter intruders. In Mexico, Seog said, carjackings are so prevalent that he has found a new market: drivers worried about getting ambushed at stoplights. “If you hit the glass 100 times, of course it will break,” he said. “But this glass protects you so that, by the third time, you have time to drive away to safety.” At the Guibor booth, general manager Gadi Mokotov was showing off a finger scanner mounted on a car dashboard. To start the vehicle, a user must insert his or her finger so the device can read the fingerprint. He said the Touch-N-Drive had an extra layer of security, particularly useful in Mexico, that also required a certain level of heat from the finger before the car could start. Why is that necessary? “In Mexico, people will cut off fingers and try to start the car that way,” he said. Mokotov said he was confident that Mexican customers who placed enough value on their cars, and their fingers, would buy his product.