1001 Smart Cities
🇨🇱 Santiago

Las Condes: Municipal Cameras, Drone Patrols and Facial Recognition

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 1 sourced claim · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

1 sourced claim on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

The comuna paid CLP 352 million for facial recognition. Municipal documents record two people detected in the six months to December 2020, and its security pages no longer mention the system.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byMunicipalidad de Las Condes (Direccion de Seguridad)
Scale🏘️ District
CostCLP 352M (IDEMIA facial-recognition software)
FundingLas Condes municipal budget

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 9 more in Santiago · 🛡️ Safety & security guide · 🏛️ Governance projects

Gran Santiago has no metropolitan municipality and no metropolitan police force. Policing is national, through Carabineros and the PDI, while each of the 32 comunas funds its own municipal security service from its own budget. Las Condes, which reports the highest security spending of any Chilean municipality, runs one of the largest. Its own site describes more than 3,300 cameras watched around the clock from five municipal security centres; the mayor's December 2025 plan cited more than 4,000, plus a digital ring of 55 gantries carrying 95 plate-reading cameras. Municipal inspectors, trained for months to hold Chilean civil aviation authority (DGAC) certification, began flying two surveillance drones over 15 plazas in April 2017, from 6pm to midnight, under a rule that footage is deleted after 30 days and can be requested or erased on demand. Five residents and the NGO Derechos Digitales challenged the flights as a breach of privacy; on 12 December 2017 the Supreme Court rejected the case, finding the drones fell within the municipality's public-security competence. Derechos Digitales called the ruling wrong and noted that no statute governs municipal drone surveillance. A separate facial-recognition system, bought from IDEMIA in 2019, ran on ten cameras with the PDI matching faces against its own database. The municipality's security pages do not mention it.

Live 📅 since 2017 🤖 Uses AI

📊 Impact

A 2023 Universidad Diego Portales survey of Chile's 345 municipalities, to which 261 replied, put Las Condes first in the country both for security spending, at CLP 76,931 million, and for the number of security measures in place, ahead of Quilicura, Puente Alto and Huechuraba, each above CLP 23,000 million (reported by BioBioChile, July 2024). The facial-recognition component has no comparable record: America Transparente, working from municipal documents, reported that Las Condes paid CLP 352 million for the IDEMIA software and that two people were detected in the six months to 28 December 2020. Chile's transparency council (CPLT) publicly warned of very low accuracy at the launch. No independent evaluation of the effect of the comuna's cameras or drones on crime was found.

🎓 Lesson

Santiago cannot buy surveillance as a city because it is not one. What a single comuna's budget approves — drones, a plate-reading ring, a facial-recognition contract — stops at its boundary, and the only outside scrutiny it drew came from a court ruling on five residents' complaint and a transparency watchdog's warning, not from any metropolitan authority.

🏛️ GovernanceSafety & securityDrones & air mobilityArtificial intelligenceSensors & IoTPrivacy & personal data

Sources

↗ Municipalidad de Las Condes — Seguridad: VigilanciaFetched OK. Operator page: 'Sistema de mas de 3.300 camaras, con las que se monitorea las 24 horas del dia' and five municipal security centres (Quinchamali, Presidente Errazuriz, San Carlos de Apoquindo, Alexander Fleming, Apoquindo). Verified negative: this page does not mention facial recognition, and gives no breakdown of how many cameras the municipality owns.
↗ Municipalidad de Las Condes — Red Municipal de CamarasFetched OK. Confirms the same 3,300+ figure and 24-hour monitoring. No drones, no facial recognition and no start year for the camera network on this page — the network's start year is not documented in any source found, which is why yearStart follows the 2017 drone programme.
↗ La Tercera — Las Condes inicia vigilancia con drones (23 April 2017)Updated 13 February 2020Fetched OK. Supports: two drones, five municipal inspectors, DGAC certification after months of training, 15 plazas, 6pm to midnight, and the retention rule: 'Las grabaciones solo pueden ser guardadas durante 30 dias, luego se borran, y cualquier persona puede solicitar acceso a ellas y pedir que eliminen aquellas en las que esta su imagen.' Note a date conflict left unresolved: this piece dates the start to April 2017, other coverage says March (DGAC support) or May 2017 (a later La Tercera headline); the entry says 2017 and April only where this source says so.
↗ BioBioChile — Corte Suprema ratifico el fallo a favor del uso de drones (12 December 2017)Fetched OK. Supports the date, the parties (five residents plus NGO Derechos Digitales), the unanimous rejection of the recurso de proteccion, and Derechos Digitales director Maria Paz Canales calling the ruling erroneous and noting no legislation governs the technology. The entry makes no claim about whether flights were suspended during proceedings, because sources conflict on that point.
↗ Diario Constitucional — CS rechaza recurso por uso de drones de vigilancia publica en Las CondesFETCH FAILED (HTTP 403). Existence and coverage confirmed via search; carried only as a corroborating legal-press record of the same 12 December 2017 ruling, no unique fact rests on it.
Show 6 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ La Tercera — Plan 'Navidad Segura' en Las Condes (6 December 2025)Fetched OK. Strongest recent source: the programme is still running. Supports 'patrullaje aereo a traves de drones', 'mas de 200 inspectores de la Direccion de Seguridad' (a 60% increase), 'mas de 4 mil camaras de seguridad', 'un anillo digital con 55 porticos y 95 camaras lectoras de patentes', and mixed patrols with Carabineros. Its camera count exceeds the municipal website's 3,300; both figures are given rather than reconciled.
↗ GobLab UAI — Plataforma de Algoritmos Publicos: videovigilancia con reconocimiento facial, Las Condes y PDIFetched OK. Independent academic registry (Universidad Adolfo Ibanez). Supports: vendor IDEMIA (Morpho Video Investigator), start 2019, ten real-time cameras, matching against the PDI's own facial database, municipality supplies infrastructure while the PDI operates the software, and that no ethical assessment framework is recorded. Its own last status note is 'in use as of March 2020' — no source found confirms whether the system still operates, which the entry states rather than guesses.
↗ America Transparente / Cronicas Transparentes — Municipalidad de Las Condes pago $352 millones por software de reconocimiento facial que no funcionaPublished 2 September 2021Fetched OK. Investigative outlet working from municipal records. Source of the CLP 352 million figure, the 28 January 2019 contract date, and the two detections in the six months to 28 December 2020. IMPORTANT: the article covers Las Condes and Lo Barnechea, two separate comunas; only the Las Condes figures are used here, and Lo Barnechea's separate CLP 45 million contract is deliberately excluded.
↗ BioBioChile — Estos son los municipios que mas invierten en seguridad en Chile (23 July 2024) archived copyFetched OK. Reports the 2023 Universidad Diego Portales study 'Municipios y seguridad publica ciudadana' (all 345 municipalities surveyed, 261 responded). Carrying sentence: 'Las Condes invirtio $76.931 millones y aplica mas medidas de seguridad en Chile, seguida por Quilicura, Puente Alto y Huechuraba. Todas estas 3, pertenecientes a la region Metropolitana, invirtieron mas de $23 mil millones.' The study ranks absolute spending and does not itself compare rich and poor comunas, so the entry reports the ranking and does not assert a causal inequality claim.
↗ Emol — Las Condes inaugura sistema de reconocimiento facial: CPLT advierte 'niveles de exactitud muy bajos' (10 December 2019)FETCH FAILED (request timed out after 60s; a second Emol URL also timed out). Existence and content confirmed via search; the CPLT accuracy warning rests on the article headline, which states it verbatim. Also fixes the December 2019 public launch date.
↗ DGAC — Operacion de drones (regulator)Published 13 March 2023Regulator reference for the certification requirement. Tested and did NOT confirm the hypothesis that a regulator grounded municipal drone programmes: no evidence was found of any DGAC restriction on Las Condes. The documented direction is the opposite — the DGAC trained and certified the municipal operators, and its operational-safety director stated publicly that municipalities may fly over populated areas where the regulation's 'public interest' test is met.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2017. 7 of 11 sources carry a publication date, from 23 April 2017 to 6 December 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. La Tercera · pressLa Tercera — Las Condes inicia vigilancia con drones (23 April 2017) · updated 13 February 2020
  2. BioBioChile · pressBioBioChile — Corte Suprema ratifico el fallo a favor del uso de drones (12 December 2017)
  3. Emol (El Mercurio Online) · pressEmol — Las Condes inaugura sistema de reconocimiento facial: CPLT advierte 'niveles de exactitud muy bajos' (10 December 2019)
  4. Fundación América Transparente · ngoAmerica Transparente / Cronicas Transparentes — Municipalidad de Las Condes pago $352 millones por software de reconocimiento facial que no funciona
  5. Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), Chile · oversight bodyDGAC — Operacion de drones (regulator)
  6. BioBioChile · pressBioBioChile — Estos son los municipios que mas invierten en seguridad en Chile (23 July 2024)
  7. La Tercera · pressLa Tercera — Plan 'Navidad Segura' en Las Condes (6 December 2025)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Entered the record

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 1 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 1 addressable claim, 11 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 1

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-d3b173414d3cace0 quantitative
A 2023 Universidad Diego Portales survey of Chile's 345 municipalities, to which 261 replied, put Las Condes first in the country both for security spending, at CLP 76,931 million, and for the number of security measures in place
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The impact notes the survey was reported by BioBioChile in July 2024.
Caveat
No independent evaluation of the effect of the comuna's cameras or drones on crime was found.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BioBioChile — Estos son los municipios que mas invierten en seguridad en Chile (23 July 2024)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-20-source-dates effective 2026-07-26 · created 2026-08-20

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:7f0c1bfe3947251335f40c94151e76c197a9224797245813913c9c2587ba6a8d
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
1
of 1 claims mapped
11
source dossiers
7
publication dates recorded
1
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Municipalidad de Las Condes (Direccion de Seguridad)
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
public
Funding description
Las Condes municipal budget
Cost
CLP 352M (IDEMIA facial-recognition software)
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

11 source dossiers

Municipalidad de Las Condes — Seguridad: Vigilancia lascondes.cl · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-28f56c554b7c1c7d
Publisher
Name not classified · lascondes.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Operator page: 'Sistema de mas de 3.300 camaras, con las que se monitorea las 24 horas del dia' and five municipal security centres (Quinchamali, Presidente Errazuriz, San Carlos de Apoquindo, Alexander Fleming, Apoquindo). Verified negative: this page does not mention facial recognition, and gives no breakdown of how many cameras the municipality owns.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Municipalidad de Las Condes — Red Municipal de Camaras lascondes.cl · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ebcd9b80cddd7b53
Publisher
Name not classified · lascondes.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Confirms the same 3,300+ figure and 24-hour monitoring. No drones, no facial recognition and no start year for the camera network on this page — the network's start year is not documented in any source found, which is why yearStart follows the 2017 drone programme.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
La Tercera — Las Condes inicia vigilancia con drones (23 April 2017) latercera.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-9f35ce1daad205dd
Publisher
Name not classified · latercera.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-04-23
Updated
2020-02-13
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Supports: two drones, five municipal inspectors, DGAC certification after months of training, 15 plazas, 6pm to midnight, and the retention rule: 'Las grabaciones solo pueden ser guardadas durante 30 dias, luego se borran, y cualquier persona puede solicitar acceso a ellas y pedir que eliminen aquellas en las que esta su imagen.' Note a date conflict left unresolved: this piece dates the start to April 2017, other coverage says March (DGAC support) or May 2017 (a later La Tercera headline); the entry says 2017 and April only where this source says so.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
BioBioChile — Corte Suprema ratifico el fallo a favor del uso de drones (12 December 2017) biobiochile.cl · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-1c668e213a19ee98
Publisher
Name not classified · biobiochile.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-12-12
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Supports the date, the parties (five residents plus NGO Derechos Digitales), the unanimous rejection of the recurso de proteccion, and Derechos Digitales director Maria Paz Canales calling the ruling erroneous and noting no legislation governs the technology. The entry makes no claim about whether flights were suspended during proceedings, because sources conflict on that point.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Diario Constitucional — CS rechaza recurso por uso de drones de vigilancia publica en Las Condes diarioconstitucional.cl · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-cc22bf1b61eb87e6
Publisher
Name not classified · diarioconstitucional.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

FETCH FAILED (HTTP 403). Existence and coverage confirmed via search; carried only as a corroborating legal-press record of the same 12 December 2017 ruling, no unique fact rests on it.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
La Tercera — Plan 'Navidad Segura' en Las Condes (6 December 2025) latercera.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ef4417d177b81a5f
Publisher
Name not classified · latercera.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-12-06
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Strongest recent source: the programme is still running. Supports 'patrullaje aereo a traves de drones', 'mas de 200 inspectores de la Direccion de Seguridad' (a 60% increase), 'mas de 4 mil camaras de seguridad', 'un anillo digital con 55 porticos y 95 camaras lectoras de patentes', and mixed patrols with Carabineros. Its camera count exceeds the municipal website's 3,300; both figures are given rather than reconciled.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
GobLab UAI — Plataforma de Algoritmos Publicos: videovigilancia con reconocimiento facial, Las Condes y PDI algoritmospublicos.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-218cd88cfeca9289
Publisher
Name not classified · algoritmospublicos.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Independent academic registry (Universidad Adolfo Ibanez). Supports: vendor IDEMIA (Morpho Video Investigator), start 2019, ten real-time cameras, matching against the PDI's own facial database, municipality supplies infrastructure while the PDI operates the software, and that no ethical assessment framework is recorded. Its own last status note is 'in use as of March 2020' — no source found confirms whether the system still operates, which the entry states rather than guesses.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
America Transparente / Cronicas Transparentes — Municipalidad de Las Condes pago $352 millones por software de reconocimiento facial que no funciona cronicas.americatransparente.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-6f2a99a99cf65281
Publisher
Name not classified · cronicas.americatransparente.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-09-02
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Investigative outlet working from municipal records. Source of the CLP 352 million figure, the 28 January 2019 contract date, and the two detections in the six months to 28 December 2020. IMPORTANT: the article covers Las Condes and Lo Barnechea, two separate comunas; only the Las Condes figures are used here, and Lo Barnechea's separate CLP 45 million contract is deliberately excluded.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
BioBioChile — Estos son los municipios que mas invierten en seguridad en Chile (23 July 2024) biobiochile.cl · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-654831029a4af313
Publisher
Name not classified · biobiochile.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2024-07-23
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
Open archived copy ↗ · 2025-10-09
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched OK. Reports the 2023 Universidad Diego Portales study 'Municipios y seguridad publica ciudadana' (all 345 municipalities surveyed, 261 responded). Carrying sentence: 'Las Condes invirtio $76.931 millones y aplica mas medidas de seguridad en Chile, seguida por Quilicura, Puente Alto y Huechuraba. Todas estas 3, pertenecientes a la region Metropolitana, invirtieron mas de $23 mil millones.' The study ranks absolute spending and does not itself compare rich and poor comunas, so the entry reports the ranking and does not assert a causal inequality claim.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Emol — Las Condes inaugura sistema de reconocimiento facial: CPLT advierte 'niveles de exactitud muy bajos' (10 December 2019) emol.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-5079dc479a12c5b7
Publisher
Name not classified · emol.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-12-10
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

FETCH FAILED (request timed out after 60s; a second Emol URL also timed out). Existence and content confirmed via search; the CPLT accuracy warning rests on the article headline, which states it verbatim. Also fixes the December 2019 public launch date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
DGAC — Operacion de drones (regulator) dgac.gob.cl · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-aaaaa82f296d876e
Publisher
Name not classified · dgac.gob.cl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-03-13
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Regulator reference for the certification requirement. Tested and did NOT confirm the hypothesis that a regulator grounded municipal drone programmes: no evidence was found of any DGAC restriction on Las Condes. The documented direction is the opposite — the DGAC trained and certified the municipal operators, and its operational-safety director stated publicly that municipalities may fly over populated areas where the regulation's 'public interest' test is met.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇦🇷 Buenos Aires's Fugitive Facial Recognition System, stopped by the courts · Buenos Aires Mirror rulings: a Buenos Aires court declared its system unconstitutional in 2023, Chile's Supreme Court cleared Las Condes' drones in 2017. 🇧🇷 Facial recognition in Rio: state police cameras, a city network that abstains · Rio de Janeiro Rio's biometrics belong to the state police while the city abstains; in Las Condes one comuna bought the software and the PDI runs it. 🇨🇴 C4 Command Centre & the 123 Emergency Line · Bogotá Bogotá watches 13,000 feeds from one city command centre; Santiago has no such centre — Las Condes watches its own 3,300-plus alone.

Explore the wider context

📟 A Reading Is Not a Decision👁️ Who is allowed to watch?📖 Adaptive traffic signals📖 Automated speed enforcement (speed cameras)📖 Flood early-warning system
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Las Condes: Municipal Cameras, Drone Patrols and Facial Recognition” — Santiago, Chile. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/santiago-las-condes-surveillance/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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