TIJUANA Citizens are a powerful tool to fight crime in Mexico, and that tool is about to go high-tech on the border.
A new campaign was unveiled Tuesday called "Tijuana 3D" that uses new and old media to reach one million residents and enlist their help to fight crime.
The concept behind "3D" short for "decide," "defend" and "denounce" – is a proven one: Ordinary citizens anonymously reporting suspicious activities or crime through a special phone line. And in Mexico, particularly Tijuana, it's a concept authorities credit with catching criminals.
The campaign includes putting up 20 billboards, 20 signs in streets across the city, and distributing 500,000 pamphlets. And it also includes sending 100,000 text messages and 50,000 e-mails to individual recipients. All of them encouraging people to take a role in improving their city.
"Organized crime is a brutal enemy that hides in a cowardly way; to fight it we need our best arms, intelligence, equipment and a strategy that involves our people to beat our enemies," said Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna, during the project's introduction at the National Chamber of Commerce in Tijuana.
A citizen's report breaks the vicious circle of complicity and impunity, said Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante. Such a report guarantees that government crime-fighting programs will succeed, he added.
According to the state's Public Safety Secretary, Daniel de la Rosa, Tijuana ranks first in Mexico in making anonymous crime tips, with 37 percent of the total calls to the phone line 089 coming from that city.
From 2007 to 2010, the city's most violent years, the number of anonymous crime reports increased by 528 percent after a comprehensive system was created to handle all anonymous reports, called the Centro Estatal de Denuncia Anónima, said De la Rosa.
He said the tips the public provided to that center resulted in the detention of 6,254 criminals, the seizure of 287 firearms and more than 123,000 pounds of various drugs, in addition to leading to the release of dozens of kidnap victims.
De la Rosa said that in the next few weeks the state will add new ways to report crimes anonymously by allowing citizens to send text messages, photos and videos to authorities.
The creator of the campaign Tijuana 3D, José Ricardo González, who has a marketing degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, said its goal is to raise awareness that the most serious crime is to remain silent.
His objective is to double the rate of anonymous reports and to improve how authorities respond to them, González said,
"We decided with 'Tijuana 3D' that this is the special effect we want to give our city," he said. "We don't need special glasses like in the movies to see things differently. We can change Tijuana by participating in that change."
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
[sidebar]Powerful tool
Anyone in Baja California can report suspicious activity or a crime anonymously by phoning toll free 089 around the clock every day of the year. That line is bilingual and also serves tourists who want to report a crime.
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