VIPER
If you are a witness or have been the victim of a crime, you may be asked to take part in an identification parade. This is usually carried out at a police station. The most common type used is known as a Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording, known as a VIPER parade.
This will involve you looking at a group of people who are similar in age and appearance to the person you told police about.
The video identification parade is a short film which is viewed on a television or computer screen and contains a series of head and shoulder video clips. These clips are made up of the person the police believe committed an offence and a number of images who, so far as possible, bear a similar resemblance.
The person you told police about will not be at the police station, but you may see them in one of the pre-recorded video clips.
Police Scotland have Viper Units across the country, with trained officers and staff who will be there and help you through the process.
The process normally takes 10 minutes but may be longer if you want to watch the video clips several times.
Information leaflets providing further information are available following the links below.
- Video Identification parade electronic recordings - Adult
- Video Identification parade electronic recordings - Trusted Adult
- Video Identification parade electronic recordings - Young person
If you require any of these documents in another language, please contact us.
To view a short video on how Viper works, please follow this link
Police Scotland has a standard of service for victims and witnesses and this can be found here.( Standards of Service for Victims and Witnesses - Police Scotland).
Additional help and information is available for victim and witnesses and this can be found here.
