diff --git a/frigate/config/camera/record.py b/frigate/config/camera/record.py
index 3db61c569..dec629b6b 100644
--- a/frigate/config/camera/record.py
+++ b/frigate/config/camera/record.py
@@ -94,3 +94,10 @@ class RecordConfig(FrigateBaseModel):
     enabled_in_config: Optional[bool] = Field(
         default=None, title="Keep track of original state of recording."
     )
+
+    @property
+    def event_pre_capture(self) -> int:
+        return max(
+            self.alerts.pre_capture,
+            self.detections.pre_capture,
+        )
diff --git a/frigate/events/external.py b/frigate/events/external.py
index edfb757a0..76b9e3208 100644
--- a/frigate/events/external.py
+++ b/frigate/events/external.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class ExternalEventProcessor:
                     "sub_label": sub_label,
                     "score": score,
                     "camera": camera,
-                    "start_time": now,
+                    "start_time": now - camera_config.record.event_pre_capture,
                     "end_time": end,
                     "thumbnail": thumbnail,
                     "has_clip": camera_config.record.enabled and include_recording,
diff --git a/frigate/record/maintainer.py b/frigate/record/maintainer.py
index 314ff3646..e97fb0a44 100644
--- a/frigate/record/maintainer.py
+++ b/frigate/record/maintainer.py
@@ -299,16 +299,12 @@ class RecordingMaintainer(threading.Thread):
             # if it doesn't overlap with an event, go ahead and drop the segment
             # if it ends more than the configured pre_capture for the camera
             else:
-                pre_capture = max(
-                    record_config.alerts.pre_capture,
-                    record_config.detections.pre_capture,
-                )
                 camera_info = self.object_recordings_info[camera]
                 most_recently_processed_frame_time = (
                     camera_info[-1][0] if len(camera_info) > 0 else 0
                 )
                 retain_cutoff = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(
-                    most_recently_processed_frame_time - pre_capture
+                    most_recently_processed_frame_time - record_config.event_pre_capture
                 ).astimezone(datetime.timezone.utc)
                 if end_time < retain_cutoff:
                     Path(cache_path).unlink(missing_ok=True)