VIPER bites back against criminals
by IBM

In the USA it’s called a “lineup,” in the UK an “identity parade.” Whatever the description, for police departments in many countries, gathering and lining up a suspect with several look-alikes for identification, is an essential procedure in the fight against crime.

In the UK, a single identity (ID) parade can typically cost $1,200 – $2,000 and take six to ten weeks to set up. To help solve these problems, West Yorkshire Police – the fourth largest police force in the UK – has established its National Video Identity Parade Electronically Recorded (VIPER) system to speed up the process and keep costs under control. Its imaging unit focuses on developing sophisticated systems to improve the use of video imaging technology in crime prevention.

Reducing the rise in crime
The Street Crime Initiative, launched in the UK in April 2002, tasked 10 UK police forces with reducing the rise in crime to meet targets set by the Government. Changes in the law allowed the identification office to select a video parade over and above a live parade.

Successful ID parades are generally acknowledged to be an effective tool in securing a conviction but are notoriously difficult to set up. The challenge was to increase speed, reduce costs, whilst helping to improve conviction rates. A video solution seemed an obvious choice but posed technical challenges of its own.

In the past, there had been a variety of video ID systems in place across the 43 UK police forces. Tony King, National Project manager VIPER, explains: “The video images that were being used varied enormously in terms of quality and format. The strength of video ID parades rests on the quality, quantity and variety of images that can be drawn upon to create a suitable lineup. The requirement for a national database, something that could not be offered by the existing variety of systems, became very clear.”

Making the case
The National VIPER Bureau was launched to address the need for a standard for video ID parades. It required a nationwide solution that would help to meet the government challenges as well as ensure secure and reliable management and storage of digital video images.

West Yorkshire Police evaluated alternative technologies, developed the VIPER concept and prototype, and secured Government funding and support from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). It then faced the reality of getting the system up and running nationally. To make it work, it turned to the expertise and experience of IBM TotalStorage Solutions Center and IBM Business Partner, Sagitta, to develop, implement and manage a high-performance scalable IT solution, based on secure, reliable and highly available IBM technology.

“Sagitta and IBM have provided invaluable expertise and support to establish the first national video ID parade system. The solution enables us to meet the exceptional demand for ID parades, while keeping the growth in costs under control.” – Tony King, project manager, VIPER National Bureau

VIPER in operation
In order to develop a much-needed consistency and generate high-quality images that could be offered as evidence, West Yorkshire Police needed to ensure that suspects’ images were captured on video in a consistent manner.

The most appropriate option was to provide a total solution to each UK police force, including all the equipment, communications links, installation and maintenance. The police ID officers were then trained on site in their new imaging suites. The total solution helps individual imaging units to focus on the ID parades, without worrying about equipment issues.

The process involves recording a short piece of video footage of a suspect, searching the VIPER database of over 10,000 video clips of volunteers, and selecting eight to ten additional images from the database for the ID parade. Details of these additional images, together with the initial footage of the suspect, are forwarded to the National VIPER Bureau, where imaging experts edit all the video clips into an electronic video ID parade. This is then sent back to the ID officer to present to the witness.

A video ID parade can be compiled within an hour, enabling the ID parade to be held while the witness still has a fresh recollection of the incident. The fast identification of suspects has been shown to increase conviction rates and to help reduce crime by repeat offenders. Furthermore, the cost of compiling such an ID parade is under $250, compared to the $1,200 – $2,000 cost of a traditional lineup.

Putting it all together
A secure and reliable IT infrastructure was crucial to support the massive storage requirements for video footage as well as to provide extensive bandwidth to send completed parades electronically to individual police stations. Based on its video editing and broadcast expertise, Sagitta was selected to design, implement and support an IBM IT infrastructure for the National VIPER Bureau.

The solution is based on 1.4TB of storage space built around industry standard hardware configured as a Linux cluster, using IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) for easy and rapid access to individual image files. A Linux foundation was essential to enable the sharing of bandwidth needed for dealing with large video files. It also fit with West Yorkshire Police’s existing Linux infrastructure and helps to keep costs low.

Security-rich, reliable and highly available hardware, including two IBM TotalStorage FAStT500 Storage Servers, two IBM Storage Area Networks (SANs) and an IBM LTO Ultrium tape library underpin the solution. This is all supported by Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) automated data management. IBM strengthened this solution with a mix of open-source and IBM value added software.

For editing the video clips, 28 IBM IntelliStations® were installed and integrated with Liquid silver non-linear editing machines and editing software from Pinnacle Systems, allowing the trained editors to construct the broadcast quality video ID parades. Sagitta provided its eXpert Support Service to ensure smooth running of the service 24/7 using its own remote monitoring tool, WatchDog. The entire set-up can be extended easily to meet VIPER’s growing requirements.

The solution was designed over a six-week period, and then rigorously tested to refine and maximize its performance, using live VIPER video footage and data. Once agreed performance levels had been proven, the system was shipped and installed on site at the National VIPER Bureau.

Sagitta’s eXpert Support Service provides ongoing access to a virtual team of storage experts to help the National VIPER Bureau manage its complex storage infrastructure more efficiently. This is supported by proactive 24/7 monitoring which helps to reduce problem resolution times by up to fifty percent. In addition, the team provides ongoing strategic evaluation to advise on how to scale the infrastructure to meet increasing demands.

“Sagitta now manages the day-to-day running of our storage infrastructure through the eXpert Support Service. This has removed the headache of recruiting and retaining highly skilled staff, enabling us to concentrate on our core business, the delivery of ID parades to our customer police forces,” comments Peter Burton, head of imaging at the National VIPER Bureau.

Extending VIPER’s reach
Almost 800 people have been trained and more than 18,000 VIPER parades have been conducted since April 2002 – far more than possible using traditional live ID parades – and representing a saving of over $11 million in the first year alone.

The National VIPER Bureau currently conducts an average of 82 parades a day, with 61 individual ID suites online across 15 police forces, and an additional 20 ID suites about to become operational. Many more police forces have expressed an interest in or are actively engaged in business cases to implement VIPER suites.

As for success, “Typically, fifty percent of live ID parades are abandoned, but since the launch of VIPER this has been reduced to less than ten percent,” says King.

What next?
According to King, the VIPER system is just a starting point. The next step is to link video technology with other identification systems such as facial/iris recognition and digital fingerprints.

West Yorkshire Police VIPER project scoops award for "Most Innovative Project of the Year"

It's considered to be the 'Oscars' of the UK IT Industry and this year was no exception. As Computing Magazine celebrates it's 30th anniversary, the "Awards for Excellence 2003" attracted hundreds of entries. IBM TotalStorage Solutions Center, Sagitta, scooped the award for "Most Innovative Project of the Year" with the VIPER project.

VIPER is a video identity parade system developed by West Yorkshire Police, and based on IBM technology. Sagitta, together with IBM, delivered a robust storage infrastructure based on a Linux GPFS cluster using FAStT storage and Tivoli Storage Manager. The project has been extremely successful saving over £7M in just 11 months.

Find out more about the Computing Awards >>
View the VIPER entry in the Computing Awards >>

For further information
To learn more about IBM Digital Media Solutions, visit our Web site at ibm.com/industries/digitalmedia or call your local IBM sales representative.

For more information about Sagitta, visit www.sagitta-ps.com