TRADITIONAL identity par- ades in which witnesses were asked to recognise the criminal in a line-up have been scrapped - and replaced with a computer parade system.
Herefordshire Police have started to use PROMAT, a video identification system which can call on 30,000 face images and removes the need to find seven members of the public to take part in the parade.
The accused person's face is viewed alongside seven other digital images from the extensive PROMAT bank to see if the witness can positively identify the person they believe took part in a serious crime.
"Very simply, you input brief details of the suspect based on gender, age, hair and skin colour, and PROMAT will come up with a number of individuals it holds in the database nearest your match," said Insp Pete Wilson.
Insp Wilson is responsible for introducing the new system in to the Herefordshire police division.
Old-style ID parades used to take up to two weeks to set up wherease the new system means that an ID parade can be ready and able to operate within an hour, added Insp Wilson.
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