I don't work in that area, but as a techno-geek, I'll comment:

Roger Hamperian wrote:
> includes a variety of media including: audio cassettes, micro cassettes, VHS
> tapes, mini-discs, CDs, DVDs etc. 
Probably worth settling on a standard level of quality for audio and 
video, and a preferred medium of storage.
Then consider migrating old stuff, based on media longevity and 
difficulty of keeping playback hardware available.
(migrate stuff prior to "expiration date" of media or hardware, 
whichever comes first!)

Audio doesn't take up much space, even at decent quality and lossless 
compression.
Video requires a lot. Nevertheless, if you really need to keep the 
stuff, you need to migrate anyway.
You can't dupe analog recordings without loss of quality. The best you 
can do is migrate to digital while the source media will provide 
adequate quality.
> These recordings are considered
> investigative case files, which are retained for 50 years according to our
> retention schedule.
Then, to meet the intent of the retention schedule, you must migrate.
> It
> seems to me that the best way to maintain this information so that it
> remains viable for the long term would be to digitize everything that isn't
> already in a digital format, store it on a hard drive and migrate the files
> as technology changes. Is this the best strategy? 
sounds like best available for the moment.
> If so, the next question
> becomes will the Police Dept. be willing to commit the financial resources
> necessary to maintain these large audio/video files (the volume of which
> will continue to grow as time goes on)? Any suggestions?
>
>   
Who will want the recordings? Who gets burned if they are not available?

Good luck!
Jay


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