Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording

Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording (VIPER) is a digital system for conducting identity parades. Rather than recruit a group of volunteers who resemble a suspect, police officers can retrieve a selection of pre-recorded video recordings of people unrelated to the case under investigation. Police officers make up a virtual parade, using clips taken from this library, and witness is then shown these, along with recordings of the current suspect.^[1] The system is used by many police forces across the UK.^[1]

VIPER was developed by West Yorkshire Police. The system is operated by the Viper Bureau from a datacentre in Wakefield.^[2] The initiative is funded by the Home Office;^[1] the initial set up cost was £7.6m, and the Wakefield datacentre was officially inaugurated by Home Secretary David Blunkett in March 2003.^[2] The system contains clips of over 50,000 different people, which can be downloaded to police laptops to allow identification to be conducted at a witness' home.^[1] A conventional lineup would cost at least £800 and could take up to ten weeks to set up – a VIPER parade costs around £150 and can be constructed in a few minutes.^[1] The system operates on a virtual private network operated by Cable and Wireless.^[2]

When the system was introduced in Scotland, Solicitor General for Scotland Elish Angiolini said "Viper is an excellent example of modernisation improving the service delivered to victims and witnesses. Old-style identification parades could be distressing for victims and witnesses and difficult to arrange quickly."^[3]

• VIPER website