An audio/visual surveillance system for use in mobile vehicles such as patrol cars includes two video cameras producing video signals and four audio sources producing audio signals. The signals are MPEG-2 compressed and streamed in real time with geographic and time data to a digital cartridge-type tape recorder located in the vehicle. A full patrol car shift is recorded on a single tape and, at the end of the shift, the tape is placed in a master sled bay. An MD5 hash authenticates the data for court use. Up to four videos can be synchronized frame-by-frame for simultaneous monitoring. An MPEG-1 stream is sent via wireless to headquarters in real time. One camera captures data external to the vehicle, while the other captures data internal to the vehicle. One audio source captures audio inside the vehicle and another captures dispatcher communications. The other two audio sources are carried by officers.