A flagship £100,000 North Yorkshire Police video identification suite is on course to pay for itself two-and-a-half times over in its first year of operation.

Senior officers say the York-based facility, which is expected to save £250,000 in parade costs this year, has revolutionised the identification or elimination of people suspected of criminal offences.

They say the force could only afford to invest in the state-of-the-art equipment, which replaces "live" parades with a video, after last year's 76 per cent police precept increase. Inspector Nick Verity, of the force identification unit, said the equipment had already been used with a laptop computer to enable a stabbing victim to identify his attacker from his hospital bed.

"We're probably the most technologically-advanced identification suite in the country. We have cut staff numbers, reduced officer time and radically decreased costs," he added.

The suite works by taking 20-second video images of volunteers, which are stored on a database. Officers can then retrieve images of people with similar features at the touch of a button to create a line-up.

This is then burned on to a compact disc for storage. It can then be used anywhere and even produced in court if evidence is disputed. It cuts the time taken to stage a parade from weeks to hours.

The change in procedure has been made possible by a revised law that now permits the police to use video images of suspects and volunteers instead of organising a "live" line-up at the station.

York MP Hugh Bayley said the Government was committed to streamlining the criminal justice system.

He said: "The Government is committed to ironing out obstacles in the criminal justice system that hinder prosecutions or make it difficult for witnesses.

"The new video identity system will save everyone's time, but it will also save the police thousands of pounds." Officers are still looking for specific groups of people to add to the database. All volunteers are paid £10 for their video image, which takes only minutes to film.

The unit needs images of women aged between 13 and 65, boys aged between 13 and 15, as well as men with ginger hair, or beards or moustaches, and people from all ethnic minorities.

If you can help, call the Identification Unit, at Fulford Police Station, on 01904 669344.

Updated: 10:17 Monday, July 14, 2003