Aspects of the present invention include method and apparatuses that may be utilized to more efficiently use available storage space for a digital video recording system in a law enforcement vehicle and final “backend storage systems.” In one embodiment of the present invention, video and audio data is recorded in one or more buffers when a triggering event is activated, while a digital video recording device accounts for specified pre-event time, a time period before a first triggering event has been activated, and a post-event time, a time period after a second triggering event has been activated. The system will tag the actual start and stop points of events in one or more buffers based on a first and a second triggering event and will then include the pre-event and post-event data along with specified data. The system will then extract the event from one or more buffer files and write the event into final video files to be stored in a hard disk drive. By recording the pre-event and post-event data in multiple buffer files and extracting the final result from selected buffer files based on the nature of the event type, the system ensures that storage device is effectively used and, in this way, useful information is recorded.