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TJ police offering GPS security devices

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published June 21, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT
This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Tijuana's Municipal Police are offering a new service to help keep people safe from kidnappers. For $1,000 businessmen and high-profile residents will be able to buy a personal GPS device that's equip

Tijuana's Municipal Police are offering a new service to help keep people safe from kidnappers. For $1,000 businessmen and high-profile residents will be able to buy a personal GPS device that's equipped with a panic button. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.

The idea is that users will carry the cell-phone like device with them and push the panic button if they're in danger. That will trigger an alarm back at the police's command station and allow officers to pinpoint the user's exact location for a speedy rescue.

Javier Algorri is the Secretary of Public Safety in Tijuana. He says kidnapping is one of the crimes that concerns him most.

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Algorri says they offer bodyguards for Tijuana residents. And they've mapped out safe routes for U.S. businessmen from the border to their workplaces. Algorri says the GPS is a new tool in their arsenal.

The number of kidnappings in Tijuana has increased recently. Mexican businessmen say 18 residents are missing. Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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