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H2O makes its mark

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Robbers attacking G4S cash vehicles and crews in the UK will soon make off with more than they expected.  The criminals will also carry away evidence that is likely to convict them - SmartWater.

Once sprayed on, SmartWater clings to its target for a considerable time. It won’t wash off or rub off – and it links the offender to the crime.  Each spray of SmartWater carries its own unique forensic identity – a sort of “DNA-style fingerprint” – which can be read accurately in a laboratory.

This means that people involved in a particular crime will carry the evidence of their guilt with them wherever they go, illuminated green whenever they are under UV light. Offenders are routinely scanned when entering a police custody area.

A powerful deterrent

In Yorkshire, Doncaster police last year clocked up a 75 per cent reduction in car crime and an 80 per cent drop in domestic burglary in a pilot area, using a paint-on “property coding” form of SmartWater which cannot be removed, even by a house-proud owner polishing an item regularly.

In the same year, the product secured reductions in domestic burglary of 100 per cent on the Gipton Estate in Leeds and 65 per cent in the London borough of Hillingdon. Previously, in Oldham, Greater Manchester, police recorded a 62 per cent fall in burglaries over a 12 month period.

Smartwater is now protecting cash delivery couriers

G4S Cash Services (UK) has become the first to adopt the SmartWater strategy and equip all of its cash delivery boxes with the tell-tale spray. As the UK’s leading provider of cash solutions, it has partnered with SmartWater Technology, specialists in forensic security, to develop a new product to protect its cash delivery couriers.

The move comes as the number of attacks on vehicles and crews transporting cash and valuables in the UK soared 24 per cent last year compared with 2005.

Adam Miller, risk director of G4S Cash Services (UK), comments: “Over the last decade the CIT industry has seen a marked increase in the number and severity of criminal attacks against couriers. The deployment of SmartWater is proving to be a major deterrent to those considering attacking a CIT courier. “Our partnership with SmartWater is just one of the initiatives we are taking, in association with the police and other key stakeholders such as the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the GMB trade union, banks and retailers, to curtail the growing number of violent attacks taking place in the cash-in-transit industry.

“The deployment of this new SmartWater solution is a major deterrent to those considering attacking a cash courier as SmartWater currently has a 100 per cent conviction rate when used as evidence in a court of law.

“We believe that our use of this technology will provide a valuable tool to support the police in their fight against CIT crime.”

Aron Craven, project manager, SmartWater Technology, explains: “The big difference between this product and traditional dyes and other markers is that the ink in each cash box will contain a forensic signature (unique to each box) which can be traced back to a crime should one occur.

“A number of SmartWater systems are to be deployed by G4S but we are not telling potential criminals exactly what we are doing.”

Phil Cleary, SmartWater’s CEO, is delighted G4S has decided to deploy SmartWater as a further deterrent to potential criminal activity against its CIT vehicles. “SmartWater is currently used, in a variety of forms, by 95 per cent of UK police forces,” he explains, “but this is the first time it has been used in cash vehicles and cashboxes.”

Today, 95 per cent of UK police forces use the product in one form or another. Now they are deploying SmartWater in innovative situations such as tackling race crime and to enforce restraining orders.

Det Supt Bob Cummings of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad also sees the incorporation of SmartWater technology in cash boxes as a significant development in the crackdown on CIT robberies.

“Industry and ourselves have been working extremely closely over the past year to develop ways to deter and catch more offenders,” he explains. “A number of ways to ‘target harden’ the process have been identified and SmartWater is just one of them.”

As part of the programme, specially adapted ultra-violet scanning lamps will be installed at every police custody suite in the UK to ensure that all suspected offenders can be checked for traces of SmartWater.

“The use of SmartWater has, to date, resulted in over 400 convictions,” says Phil Cleary, “and in many of these cases, guilty pleas have been tendered at court due to the indisputable nature of the evidence.”
   
This page is an edited version of the article featured in the December 2007 edition of International.
Download the full article: application/pdf H2O makes its mark
Once sprayed on, Smartwater clings to its traget

Shortcut Links

  • SmartWater
  • SmartWater is a unique crime reduction strategy, based around the use of state-of-the-art forensic technology.

    SmartWater links criminals with the crime scene and property to its owner, providing police with irrefutable forensic evidence to aid the prosecution of offenders.

    For more information about SmartWater, visit www.smartwater.com
The power of the SmartWater deterrent effect lies in the fact that once it is sprayed onto robbers or intruders the invisible liquid marks the skin or clothing of the criminal with an irrefutable forensic code. The product remains on the skin for months and is not removable from clothing. Similarly, when applied to valuables or industrial goods, it becomes impossible to remove, is easily detectable, and carries a SmartWater identification number which is uniquely registered to its owner.

SmartWater is the brainchild of former West Midlands police officer Phil Cleary and his brother Mike. Phil, who left the force after a car accident, knew the frustration of seeing burglary suspects go free because there was no way to link them to the crime. At the same time he was fascinated by the way DNA profiling had resulted in a significant drop in sexual assaults.

Mike, a chartered chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, set to work, using a small garage as his laboratory. Phil interested police forces in the idea … and SmartWater was launched. The company now employs more than 50 people with offices at Telford, Shropshire, and a research facility in North Wales.

More than 400,000 homes and businesses are using the system, among them household names such as BT, British Airways and Scottish Power.

Major supermarkets also use SmartWater as a spray around cash offices, cigarette kiosks, drinks displays and other areas displaying high value goods. It is activated in conjunction with the burglar alarms.
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