the event of a crime or act of terrorism in addition a large number of surveillance vehicles may provide a greater deterrence to criminal or terrorist acts fig2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of an on vehicle acquisition storage and communication system 200 in fig2 one or more cameras 205 may be mounted in or on a surveillance vehicle shown as 125 140 in fig1 each camera 205 may operate to acquire either continuous video or a series of still images each of the cameras 205 has a view of the area in front of behind or beside the surveillance vehicle on which it is installed in the example shown in fig1 one of the cameras mounted in or on surveillance vehicle 130 has a view of the area front of surveillance vehicle 130 referring again to fig2 the output of each camera 205 is fed into video processor 210 where it is converted to a form that is readily amenable to storage and transmission in one embodiment video processor 210 converts the camera signal to digital form and compresses the resultant digital data using one or more well known methods for compressing video or still image data this includes for example jpeg jpeg2000 mpeg 1 mpeg 2 mpeg 4 wmv vc 1 or any other similar means in one embodiment audio input may also be acquired from one or more microphones 215 mounted in or on.