Trailblazing detectives who investigated the Bradford riots are hoping pioneering evidence-gathering techniques could be adopted nationwide.

A team who worked on the Operation Wheel inquiry yesterday met Home Office officials to try to bring the system they developed into new legislation.

The team, led by Chief Superin-tendent Max McLean and senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Chris Binns, travelled to London to present their case for recognition evidence to be included in the annual Police and Crim-inal Evidence Act (PACE) review.

They were joined by senior CPS lawyers for the summit with John Woodcock, the head of the Home Office police leadership and development unit, which is in charge of the PACE Act review.

Recognition evidence has been mainly responsible for 235 successful convictions resulting from the Bradford riots of three years ago.

It is based on a witness seeing a photograph, image or CCTV crime appeal and recognising the person, even though the witness was not present at the offence. It differs from traditional identification evidence which involves witnesses who saw the incident or saw the offender at the scene.

The procedure was pioneered in Bradford following advice from leading barrister Robert Smith, QC. Det Insp Binns said: "Recognition evidence is not in the legislation at present but everything we did mirrored the legislation, so it was fair to defendants. In the early days we weren't sure the courts would accept the procedures, but they did and it was used successfully."

Det Insp Binns said the procedure came about in the early stages of the inquiry when officers realised they had many hours of video footage showing rioters.

"We decided to publish posters and pictures of offenders and people recognised who they were," he said. "We had to produce a system that proved the person in the dock was the person who had been recognised. It's fair to say the Home Office officials were very impressed."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will consider the scope for including the relevant guidelines in the PACE code D which covers identification procedures. No decision has yet been made."