Reality television has a new meaning for Wilmington, N.C. police officers in the United States. With 88 police vehicles now outfitted with mobile digital cameras, the department has a powerful new tool to fight crime and help protect its 255 officers. “The benefits to officer welfare alone justify the mobile camera investment,” said Sgt. Ed Gibson, Wilmington Police Department. “To date, use of videos has cleared officers accused of improper force and will now assist in (two) prosecutions of individuals filing false police reports.” The Wilmington Police Department, serving a population of about 100,000, was among the first municipalities in the country to test mobile video technology in 2003. After testing the units for about 18 months in 75 vehicles, the Wilmington Police Department determined that the Motorola Mobile Video Enforcer system would be part of their daily operations. The system currently in place in Wilmington consists of in-car mobile digital video recorders and a complete digital video management system housed within the police department. Key capabilities of the system include 24-hour recording capacity; automatic event-triggered recording; auto-zoom for license plate capture; video filtering by classification and priority, such as incident and profile of suspect; evidence marking; and a scaleable DVD-based storage system. Officer safety is a primary benefit for implementing mobile video technology into police and mission critical operations. However, its use has also played an instrumental role in capturing key details of police incidents as they unfold. As an example, Sgt. Gibson noted one case where an in-car camera captured on tape a person’s actions at the scene of a fatal motorcycle accident and this information ultimately leading to an arrest. A recent study on the impact of in-car cameras conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) found that more than 33 percent of officers reported feeling safer on the job as a result in-car cameras. And while the use of cameras has proven effective in de-escalating confrontational situations, it has also proved a valuable asset for officer training purposes.