A surveillance recorder (10) comprises: a picture input unit (12) for inputting a surveillance picture; a moving object detection unit (18) for detecting a moving object from a surveillance picture inputted by the picture input unit (12); a face image detection unit (20) for detecting, from an object detected by the moving object detection unit (18), a part having an elliptical outline as a face image; an identity judgment unit (22) for judging whether a face image newly detected by the face image detection unit (20) is of a same person as a face image detected last time or not based on positions of each face image; a storage image choice unit (24) for, when a newly detected face image has been judged to be of a same person by the identity judgment unit (22), choosing one face image from a face image of the same person stored in a recording medium (16) and the newly detected face image; and an image storage unit (26) for, when a newly detected face image has been chosen by the storage image choice unit (24), storing in the recording medium (16) both the newly detected face image and information for searching for the face image together. This allows an image suitable for storage to be detected from a surveillance picture.