Delaware state police to ditch VHS

Delaware State Police plan to start replacing VHS surveillance gear in 350 patrol cars with digital video cameras.

The state’s congressional delegation secured an earmark of $500,000 for a pilot program of 70 cameras last year and another $1.5 million this year for the rest of the agency’s patrol cars.

Sen. Tom Carper visited the State Police Museum on Monday to announce the federal contribution.

Typically, cameras are used to document traffic stops and field sobriety tests and to monitor officers to ensure professionalism.

Videotapes must be changed every eight hours, labeled, taken to evidence rooms and logged. But images from digital cameras are passed wirelessly to a server and may be called up by date or other identifying information.

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