1. A surveillance apparatus for motor vehicles ( 14 ; 32 ), especially for commercial vehicles ( 32 ), with a camera ( 2, ; 34, 36 ) for the imaging of still or moving pictures, whereby the camera ( 2 ) has a field of view, in front of, at the sides of and/or behind the said vehicle ( 14, 32 ), and with an image and data storage apparatus ( 4 ), which is connected to the camera ( 2 ; 34, 36 ) for the recording and storage of the images produced by the camera ( 2 ; 34, 36 ) at least for a period of time which lies between a first point in time t 1 in the past and a second point in time t 2 in the present.