The Municipality of San Miguel signed an agreement with the city of Florida, Uruguay, to implement the 'Ojos en Alerta' (Eyes on Alert) program there. This security and community participation tool was born in that Buenos Aires district and is now used by nearly 100 municipalities across Argentina.
According to the Argentine News Agency (NA), the agreement was signed by the Intendant of San Miguel, Jaime Méndez, and his Uruguayan counterpart, Carlos Enciso, in an ceremony attended by officials from both administrations, representatives of security forces, and the program's creator, Cristián Méndez.
'Ojos en Alerta' allows residents to communicate directly with the municipal monitoring center via WhatsApp to report suspicious situations, crimes in progress, medical emergencies, or traffic incidents, by sending messages, audios, photos, or geolocated videos.
A technical team from San Miguel remained in Uruguay to oversee the program's launch and train the new teams.
The Municipality of San Miguel highlighted that the expansion of 'Ojos en Alerta' consolidates the district as 'a benchmark in citizen security policies based on community participation' and is part of a broader strategy that includes municipal patrol, surveillance cameras, and coordination with provincial and federal forces.
According to official data, the system has over one million active users across the various participating jurisdictions. Florida will be the first city outside the country to adopt the program, which, in addition to the agreement, involves training local operators and adapting the response protocol to the department's reality.
