Abstract: A digital video surveillance system for a law enforcement vehicle comprises a video camera mounted on the law enforcement vehicle and positioned to view an incident. A memory buffer records video signals from the video camera. A controller generates record and playback signals to record and to display the video signals. A digital video recorder is responsive to the record signal to record the video signals from the memory buffer on an optical medium and to the playback signal to reproduce video signals recorded on the optical medium. A vault encloses the digital video recorder. A battery provides backup power to the digital video surveillance system. The optical medium may be a DVD disk. A watermark may be included with the digital recording.