NCJ Number
207157
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 52 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 92-94,96-110,112
Date Published
July 2004
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the benefits of digital in-car video systems and presents the results of an evaluation of digital patrol video equipment from 10 different manufacturers.
Abstract
Digital patrol video has many advantages over analog patrol video. Space and personnel for storage are reduced with digital video and server-based video can be viewed from any computer networked to the system. Moreover, access to any part of the recording is much easier to access than analog video which requires rewinding or fasting forwarding. Many of the manufacturers contacted for the equipment evaluation ease management issues by selling “back end” management software that helps catalog video clips. The development of “pre-event recording” also makes digital video imagining more effective at gathering evidence. It works by passively recording at all times when there is power supplied to the system, so that when an officer activates the video, the events just prior to the video activation are saved and added to the beginning of the video clip. For the current digital video equipment evaluation, every known patrol video manufacturer was contacted and asked to submit a system for testing; 10 manufacturers sent hardware which was then installed in the patrol cars of the Hermiston and Umatilla Police Departments in Oregon. The 10 manufacturers who sent equipment were McCoy’s Law Line, Mobile-Vision, International Police Technologies, Kustom Digital Eyewitness, Sequent, Coban, Video Systems Plus, Decatur Gemini Video System, Martel Electronics, and ICOP Digital, Inc. As the equipment was installed, it became clear that installation of digital patrol video equipment is difficult and should be handled by a professional. Descriptions are offered of the systems tested, including notes on installation, design, operation, performance, innovative features, and optional features.