West Yorkshire police outsource Viper back-up

West Yorkshire Police Force is outsourcing the disaster recovery and storage for its ID parade system: Viper.

The Viper (Video Identification Parade Electronically Recorded) system uses electronic feeds instead of real live people for identity parades.

West Yorkshire police saw a decrease in the number of cancelled line-ups when the system was introduced, and it has enabled the force to carry out 18,000 line-ups since April 2002 - more than could have been conducted using traditional in-person identity parades.

Due to the number of identity parades now performed using Viper, and the necessity for a larger volume of data to be retained safely and made available at any time to the police, the West Yorkshire force has decided to outsource the back-up, disaster recovery and back-up management to GlassHouse Technologies.

GlassHouse Technologies will now design and build the storage system for West Yorkshire Police's disaster recovery site, with an outsourced storage and back-up contract to support Viper to follow.

West Yorkshire Police detective, Michael Flickling, said the Viper project is groundbreaking for the police.

"The achievement of a national level IT system across the country in a matter of a few months is no mean feat and has been a fine example of a public service outfit and private sector companies working together," he said in a statement.