The present invention is a video surveillance, storage, and alerting system having surveillance cameras, video analytics devices, audio sensory devices, other sensory devices, and a plurality of data storage devices. A network management module monitors network status of all subsystems including cameras, servers, storage devices, etc. and shows actively monitored areas on a physical map. A vehicle information module retrieves information from a law enforcement database about vehicles detected in the video data based on the vehicle's license plate, including information about stolen vehicles, as well as warrant, wanted person, and mug shot information for registered drivers of the vehicles. Video tips are received and processed from anonymous and non-anonymous sources. A correlation engine correlates primitive events and compound events from each of the subsystems, weighted by attributes of the events, across both space and time, and an alerting engine generates alerts and performs actions based on the correlation. A hierarchical storage manager manages storage of the vast amounts of data, including video data, based on importance of the data calculated from attributes of the data. A privacy filter ensures no private data is detected, correlated, or stored.