A novel
system for gathering, analyzing and storing information for the purpose of motor
vehicle theft and vandalism investigations. An
on board secure vehicle mounted surveillance
system, that can monitor the vehicle for brief or extended periods of time that can operate whether the vehicle is on or off, having a
video camera for generating video signals of an incident
proximate the vehicle, having an audio device for monitoring events
proximate the vehicle, motion sensor to activate the
system and lights activated by the system to illuminate the area viewed by the camera. The video signals are digitized into a synchronized
data file, carrying a unique
vehicle identification and a time indicator with other input data occurring on or about the vehicle such as audio recordings and the like. The file is encrypted and stored on a
large capacity, code accessible device or transmitted, via a
transceiver, real time to authorities and / or an off vehicle storage site. Once written, the encrypted file cannot be altered or corrupted, decrypted without the
encryption key, or accessed without the access
authorization code. The stored
data file can be down loaded to be used as evidence.