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Digital Water Marks Thieves
A watery ray of light in Britain's long, dark tunnel of crime. Severely EFLSmartWater is a clear liquid containing microscopic particles encoded with a unique forensic signature that, when found coated on stolen property, provides a precise trace back to the owner and, when detected on a suspect, can conclusively implicate a felon. Likened to giving household items and vehicles a DNA of their own, the fluid is credited with helping cut burglary in Britain to a 10-year low, with some cities reporting drops of up to 85 percent. A decade in the making, SmartWater is the name for a suite of forensic coding products. The first, Instant, is a property-marking fluid that, when brushed on items like office equipment or motorcycles, tags them with millions of tiny fragments, each etched with a unique SIN (SmartWater identification number) that is registered with the owner's details on a national police database and is invisible until illuminated by police officers using ultraviolet light. A second product, the Tracer, achieves a similar goal by varying the blend of chemical agents used in the liquid to produce one of a claimed 10 billion one-off binary sequences, encoded in fluid combinations themselves. But more than property can get tagged. In spray form, the fluid marks intruders with a similarly unique code that, when viewed under UV in a police cell, makes a red-faced burglar glow with fluorescent green and yellow blotches. The resemblance to Swamp Thing and the forensic signature found on his body are telltale signs the suspect has been up to no good at a coded property. "It's practically impossible for a criminal to remove; it stays on skin and clothing for months," Cleary added. "If a villain had stolen a watch, they might try to scrape off the fluid -- but they would have to remove every last speck, which is unlikely. Law enforcers are confident SmartWater can help improve Britain's mixed fortunes on combating burglary. Nationwide, instances of the crime have fallen by 42 percent since 1997, but the proportion of those resulting in convictions has also halved, from 27 percent to just 13 percent. So, while SmartWater is available commercially with a monthly subscription, many police forces are issuing free kits to vulnerable households in crime hot spots, hoping it can help put away more perps. The microdot tech could prove invaluable in a courtroom, but it is also an effective deterrent. Most burglaries happen because criminals know there is little chance of being arrested during a break-in, according to U.K. government data. But posters and stickers displayed in SmartWater-coded cities and homes warn off would-be crooks. "Since we started using it in Croydon, burglaries are down by 27 percent," said Sgt. Phil Webb of the Metropolitan Police, which started testing the product in the region in late 2003 and has given 2,000 packs to citizens. Other forces using SmartWater have reported burglary reductions of up to 65 percent, while Cleary said England's West Yorkshire force was due to announce a decrease of 85 percent after testing the product in the northern town of Halifax. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-16 |
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