A surveillance apparatus continuously records imaged data from a camera into a circular buffer in a local memory. When a record signal is received, the system records the video stream that was recorded before the record signal was received, and the video stream that is recorded after the record signal was received. The recorded segment is then write-protected, so that the surveillance apparatus does not overwrite the recorded segment. The recorded segment could then be sent to a remote memory via a wireless connection to free up local memory for future recording sessions.