Playa del Carmen to Build Tactical Operations Center to Boost Fifth Avenue Security

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The Playa del Carmen city government announced it will create a Tactical Operations Center (COT), a new security facility that will concentrate video surveillance technology and police response tools in an effort to strengthen safety along Fifth Avenue.

Carlos Montesinos García, the municipality’s public security secretary, led a meeting with business sector representatives and police commanders, accompanied by Deputy Secretary Jorge Alexis Zuart Córdoba, to present the scope of the project.

According to Montesinos García, the center will feature a network of high-definition cameras, facial and body recognition systems, drones and other technological devices connected in real time to the body cameras worn by officers, with the aim of speeding up the response to possible incidents.

Phased Rollout Starting on Fifth Avenue

The first phase calls for installing the technology in the Fifth Avenue area. A second and third phase would later extend the interconnection to the rest of the municipality’s video surveillance network.

The new infrastructure will add to operational resources already deployed in the tourist zone, including special patrols, foot patrols and overflights by the Albatros helicopter.

The announcement comes after the municipal government took operational command of the so-called “Fifth Avenue Shield,” in coordination with the Mexican Army (SEDENA), the National Guard, the Mexican Navy, the Quintana Roo Public Security Department and the Municipal Police. In September, the city government reported that the operation had carried out more than 1,300 actions at specific points, along with thousands of inspections and preventive patrols during the first nine months of the year.

Montesinos García said the strategy also includes strengthening response capacity through new patrol vehicles, a larger number of officers and police training.

The plan will further involve coordination with pre-hospital care services, using equipped ambulances and certified paramedic personnel.

The city government said Mayor Estefanía Mercado will later preside over the inauguration of the Tactical Operations Center and present details on how it will operate and how the surveillance systems will be interconnected.