As a police detective, Philip Cleary was often frustrated when confronted by the simple problem of successfully matching stolen property to its rightful owner. Aside from any altruistic motivation, the problem was a real one for police; successful prosecutions rest on proving guilt, and the mere act of finding boxes of stolen goods in a person's home does not constitute that proof. How can the police say property is stolen if it cannot be traced back to a specific individual?
Detective Cleary, of England's West Midlands police, was sufficiently taxed by the problem that he decided to attempt to solve it. Of all the options, he had identified forensic science as the ultimate fear of most criminals.
Regardless of alibis, if forensic evidence can tie a person to a place or item, it provides an irrefutable link. He noted that a forensic trap was a potent deterrent against crime, a fact borne out by cases where science had led to a reduction in criminal activity.
Cleary asked his brother Michael - a chartered chemist and member of the Royal Society of Chemists - to develop a possible solution. He came up with SmartWater, a non-hazardous, coded combination of chemicals in an aqueous mix. When dry it is virtually undetectable in normal lighting but it glows under ultraviolet (UV) light. It is almost impossible to remove completely and successful analysis could be obtained from a trace less than half the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence.
Each batch of SmartWater is unique, manufactured under laboratory conditions with a database maintained by the Home Office Forensic Science Service. Every consignment of aqueous solution has a chemical make-up that contains thousands of aluminium-coated particles, each with a unique numerical identifier and, together, these variables make it mathematically impossible for any two codes to be the same.
The patented system offers a potential four billion possible codes although, in theory, a few changes could make this number infinite. The solution can be painted on to an item and is then virtually undetectable unless under UV light. In essence, SmartWater is analogous to DNA profiling, linking a marked item of property back to a specific individual.
Regardless of the benefits in being able to successfully charge the perpetrators of theft or robbery, in an ideal world crime should be prevented from taking place at all. The arrest and conviction of those responsible does not negate the sense of violation felt by their victims, nor does it reduce the fear of crime that affects whole communities.
And it is here that SmartWater really provides the key.
A recent criminal trial at London's highest court heard that two men had originally targeted Thomas Cook foreign exchange counters but were forced to switch their attention when they discovered that the travel agency had fitted the SmartWater system.
After being sprayed by one of the devices during a raid on one of the company's offices, one of the men was said to have been 'horrified' to discover its crime-fighting potential and the firm was never targeted by the pair again.
The system has been adopted by a number of police forces in the UK, including Greater Manchester Police that, in a high-profile exercise, recently agreed to apply SmartWater to property in 100 000 homes in the Oldham area of the city in a bid to reduce crime figures.
In addition, the police have targeted burglars by carrying out searches of their homes in order to recover stolen property, checking on site to see if it has been marked with SmartWater. The company's scientists have also developed a way of inserting a unique identifier code into polymer-based products and textiles at a molecular level, thus providing a chain of continuity and a means of identification even when fire reduces an object to ash.
SmartWater employs 40 staff at its base in Shropshire but anticipates doubling in size in the next two years to cope with demand for its products. With blue-chip companies including Microsoft, British Airways and Tesco adopting SmartWater and exports to countries throughout the world increasing, it looks like that target is well within reach.
Elvey International is the official distributor of SmartWater in South Africa. For more information contact Matthew Short Elvey International, 011 401 6700, matthew.short@elvey.co.za, www.elvey.co.za
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