Help in DF for tourist crime victims

This is a reasonably good step. Not that DF is any more dangerous than any other big city tourist destination, but that it can be frustrating for foreigners to try negotiating the legal system. By the way, the police station on Florencia, just off the Angel (across from the big gay bar) has English-speaking staff. U.S. and Canadian residents can file denunciations through their embassies.

Translation from an article by Angélica Simón in El Universal:

Starting Tuesday, tourists in Mexico City who are victimized by any crime can call on the assistance of any of 32 “citizen agents” who will assist them in filing their denunciatons.

The Federal District Secretariat of Tourism and the Citizen Council of the Public Security and Justice, signed a collaboration agreement that allows the 32 agents to assist in crowd control and in assisting visitors at the Public Prosecutor’s office, to avoid the tourist being victimized twice, both by the criminal and by neglect at the Public Ministry.

In the first stage, “citizen agents” will work the permiter of the Zona Rosa, the Reforma Corridor and the Centro Historico. A toll-free telephone number (01 800 670 9090) has been set up to dispatch citizen agents to the scene of the crime, said and the agents will move until the place where the crime was committed, said Meyer Klip Gervitz of the Citizen Council of the Public Security and Justice .

Secretary of Tourism, Alejandra Barrales, added that the agreement is necessary for security in the Zona Rosa, and admitted that criminals detract from the tourist’s enjoyment of the area.

The Zona Rosa, and the Federal District, are the number one destination for Mexican and foreign tourists. Last year, Barrales said, there were about 200 recorded crimes against tourists in the Zona Rosa, mostly street robberies. This year, there have been 40.

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