For many years, thieves have thrived upon the fact that police find it difficult to identify the true owners of stolen property found in their possession. Villains know that, unless the police can prove to a Court of Law who the real owner is, there's little chance of them being convicted. A recent test case at the Old Bailey appears to have changed the status quo – largely thanks to the inception of SmartWater technology.
Two of this country's most ruthless and prolific armed robbers have just begun long stretches at Her Majesty's Pleasure for a five-year campaign of crime that was interrupted by only one thing. Water.

Throughout their reign of terror, thought to have netted a cool £1 million, it was disclosed in Court that brothers Sean and Vincent Bradish allowed little or nothing to stand in their way. Using masks in a bid to defeat sophisticated CCTV systems, and sheer speed to overcome intruder alarms, the brothers were even prepared to take hostages if their attack was compromised. That all changed when one of their chosen victims, the travel agent Thomas Cook, decided to install what is being hailed as a "revolutionary" crime prevention system.

At the Bradish's trial, the Old Bailey heard that the brothers concentrated their attacks on Thomas Cook's famous foreign exchange counters, but were forced to switch their attention to banks, building societies and Cash-in-Transit vehicles having been 'sprayed' by one of the devices – known as SmartWater – during a raid on the Wallington branch in Surrey.

A British invention that aims to help end users defend their property from theft and acts of vandalism, SmartWater is a forensic deterrent similar in concept to DNA profiling. The harmless, water-based solution contains a combination of coded particles modelled on the principles of human DNA and stored in an aqueous mix. When the SmartWater system is activated, the solution is sprayed onto the skin and clothing of offenders by automatic intruder alarms and detection systems.

Once dry – and viewed under normal lighting conditions – the result is virtually undetectable, but (as the pictures reproduced above courtesy of the West Yorkshire Police show) it glows under ultraviolet light.

As stated, every SmartWater spray contains a unique code (millions of combinations are available, apparently), enabling police to obtain scientific evidence from the traces found on offenders. Forensic analysis of any traces of the solution prove that the suspect(s) must have been in a given location at the time of an incident (which is exactly how the Bradish brothers were brought to book).

The British Government's Forensic Science Service (FSS) – a Home Office Executive Agency – manufactures the product under licence, with every coded batch being registered on the FSS' national database. In practice, the FSS also analyses samples for evidence. Even the minutest trace of liquid is said to be sufficient for identification purposes.

A co-ordinated strategy
SmartWater was originally designed solely as a tool for the police to use on covert operations – it's estimated that over 100 criminals have been convicted by the technology to date. In recent times, police forces across the UK have been adopting a co-ordinated strategy designed to enhance the deterrent impact by educating the criminal fraternity about the risk SmartWater presents to them. Indeed, some forces have even adapted the product to address particular crime problems in their area.

The Metropolitan Police has installed more than ten ultraviolet detection suites at police stations in the Capital, each capable of detecting minute traces of SmartWater. Every arrested suspect brought to a station is checked – the message to criminals be

For example, the Metropolitan Police has installed more than ten ultraviolet detection suites at police stations in the Capital, each capable of detecting minute traces of SmartWater. Every arrested suspect brought to a station is checked.

Meantime, on the advice of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), a dozen or so schools in the East Manchester region – each of them said to have been 'chronically victimised' in times past – have reported a 90% reduction in crime post the installation of a SmartWater system. A series of almost constant break-ins have now been reduced to a handful.

GMP has also adapted the product to provide a solution to the problem of mobile 'phone thefts. SmartWater is painted on to handsets which, when recovered, can then be analysed and returned to their rightful owner.

In Manchester, teenagers are being encouraged to have their telephones 'marked' for free, largely due to the fact that the city has one of the worst records for mobile 'phone theft in the country (some 238 handsets are stolen each month). Police estimate that more than half of all reported street robberies involve mobile telephones being stolen. Interestingly, this particular scheme is being delivered by East Manchester Neighbourhood Wardens, and is supported by the New Deal for Communities.

Warwickshire Police are helping to protect businesses throughout the region by designing signage for display on lamp posts in business parks, warning would-be felons that they're entering a SmartWater-protected area. In Birmingham, installers are actively linking the spray to their customers' intruder alarm systems. For example, Birmingham Alarm Technicians (BAT) installed the SmartWater product – one-time winner of the Prince of Wales Award for Innovation – for a jewellery wholesaler in the city's celebrated Jewellery Quarter. The results have justified the decision.

Broadening the scope
Although originally designed solely as a tool for the police to use on covert operations such as those mentioned, having discovered that SmartWater's effectiveness is genuinely feared by the criminal fraternity its developers have taken matters a stage further and introduced a variant that can be used to protect motor vehicles. Good news for security managers responsible for expensive fleet cars.

The unique forensic power of SmartWater has now been enhanced by the inclusion of hundreds of laser-etched particles each bearing a SmartWater Identification Number (SIN) solely for that vehicle. Every SmartWater Instant solution boasts a unique forensic fingerprint together with its SIN, both of which correlate to just one motor vehicle and its VIN.

The Forensic Science Service: pioneering the use of DNA detection techniques

The purpose of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) is to serve the administration of justice, principally by providing scientific support in the investigation of crime and expert evidence to the Courts. As part of the Home Office, the FSS was established as an executive agency in April 1991. Five years later, it was merged with the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory, at which time it became a national service. Today, it’s by far the largest supplier of forensic science services in the UK. The FSS is a non-profit making organisation. Charging by the FSS, which began in 1999, was born out of the 1998 Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs so that its capacity could be aligned with the demand for its services. This has enabled the organisation to develop commercially, offering services to private, public and overseas customers as well as the 43 police forces in England and Wales (plus the Ministry of Defence Police and the British Transport Police, among others). Pioneering the use of DNA profiling in forensic science, the FSS set up the world’s first national criminal intelligence DNA database in 1995. In practice, matches will be made between DNA samples from ‘scenes of crime’ – using blood, for example – and individuals or indeed other crimes. Around 100,000 forensic cases are dealt with each year. FSS scientists are called upon to give evidence in Court no less than 2,500 times each year, and attend around 1,200 crime scenes in the same time period.

Smart move: a secret weapon for hospital security

Hospitals on Teesside are making use of SmartWater to combat the theft of expensive – and often life-saving – medical equipment. The South Tees Acute Hospitals Trust has introduced the SmartWater IndSol Tracer, a further variant on the basic SmartWater system that’s designed for security managers who want to ‘label’ and protect their company’s physical assets. In use, the SmartWater solution is applied to areas of each item to be protected, is invisible to the naked eye and is virtually impossible to remove once dry. The solution is touch dry in an hour, and fully hardened within 48 hours. South Tees Trust security manager Joe Walker and his team have painted the solution on everything from office hardware (computer hard drives and VDUs) through to the aforementioned medical equipment (including humidifiers and portable blood pressure machines). “It’s a sad reflection of the times in which we live,” said Walker. “You wouldn’t think anyone would want to steal things from a hospital but, unlike your own home which you can at least lock up, a hospital is a public place and is therefore prone to that kind of thing.”

End users looking to protect their company’s assets will be keen to learn that, when dry, SmartWater acts as an insulator, such that even semiconductor chips may be marked. Once specified, it’s supplied complete with warning signs, an asset register for you to fill in and an ultraviolet light source such that security professionals can check which of their company’s valuable pieces of equipment have been marked, and where.

Smart move: a deterrent for would-be vehicle thieves

Britain's first six-month trial of SmartWater aimed at thwarting motor vehicle thieves is currently being conducted in Hove, east Sussex – where police have been fitting the device to ‘trap vehicles’ left parked and unattended in car crime ‘hotspots’. These include housing estates, supermarket car parks and multi-storey car parks that, until now, have proved easy hunting grounds for thieves intent on stealing cars or the valuables left lying around inside them. Chief Inspector Stuart Harrison of the Sussex force told SMT that officers paid a visit to 20 of the area’s most active car thieves to brief them of the consequences should they activate the SmartWater devices. Results have been impressive. “We have seen a notable reduction in car crime episodes in those areas where we’ve deployed the trap vehicles,” said Inspector Harrison. “SmartWater is certainly making the thieves think twice.”

Source

SMT

Postscript

Further information on SmartWater can be found on the Internet at: www.smartwater.co.uk