 | This article contains promotional content .(February 2022) |
SmartWater is a traceable liquid and forensic asset marking system (taggant), applied to items of value to identify thieves, and deter theft. The liquid leaves a unique identifier, whose presence "cannot be easily seen by the naked eye" except under ultraviolet black light. [1]
SmartWater, the forensic technology company was started in the early 1990s by Phil Cleary. [2] Phil's brother, Mike Cleary, a Chartered Chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, created SmartWater, [3] [4] and was responsible for technology development, whereas Phil Cleary looked after the business side of things.
In 1996, SmartWater gained a national profile when the Clearys won the Prince of Wales Award for innovation of the product, with the most commercial potential on BBC's Tomorrow's World. [5]
From 2016 to 2019, SmartWater initiated an M&A program, which culminated in the acquisition of PID Systems Ltd in Prestwick, Scotland. This led to the formation of the SmartWater Group Limited, comprising SmartWater Technology Limited, PID Systems Ltd, the SmartWater Foundation Ltd, and the Centre for Infrastructure and Asset Protection, the company's intelligence arm that provides crime pattern analysis for the UK police service.
SmartWater is a clear, water-based liquid containing an identifying code that can be viewed under ultraviolet light. [6] It is intended to be applied to valuable items, including equipment at construction sites, merchandise in retail stores, and vacant residential or commercial properties. [7] It can also be used to spray a burglar with liquid to generate evidence that connects a suspect to a specific location. [6] If the items are stolen and later recovered by police, the code can be read in a laboratory to identify the original owner. [6] [8]
SmartWater comes in three variants: "Index Solutions", "Indsol Tracer" and "SmartWater Instant", which use different techniques to embed such a code. According to Phil Cleary, this allows "millions of chemical signatures" and, in terms of its use as an asset protection system, is an identifier superior to DNA fingerprinting. [9]
In a 2006 speech to security professionals at the NEC in Birmingham, CEO Phil Cleary stated, "Property marking initiatives are a waste of time and public money unless they're accompanied by an underlying strategy aimed at creating a sustainable deterrent." Cleary went on to suggest that criminals would not be deterred by technology unless they had a successful track record of securing convictions in the criminal courts. [10] The SmartWater company developed a crime reduction program, called "The SmartWater Strategy".
In 2008, a research paper on the efficacy of SmartWater was published by a team led by Professor Martin Gill. Gill interviewed criminals and asked whether the presence of SmartWater would deter them from burglary, with 74% saying it would. The paper was later criticized; according to an academic study carried out by the Centre for Operational Police Research, University of Warwick, the research paper was not an academic study, was paid for by the company, and had an unclear methodology. [11]
In 2012, SmartWater presented its strategy to officers of the Metropolitan Police, who decided to test SmartWater's concept under controlled conditions. Consequently, a 'proof of concept' trial was initiated in 2013. SmartWater operated in the London Borough of Brent and, following six months of formal assessment, announced an 85% reduction in household burglary. [12]
In their study, the Centre for Operational Police Research said that the 'proof of concept trial' suffered from the same deficiencies as the paper by Professor Martin Gill. They added that the use of SmartWater may not be causal in the reduction in burglaries and could be explained by an increase in police resources in the area.
In 2017, SmartWater became accredited as being compliant with the UK Government's Forensic Science Regulator's Codes of Practice, which became a lawful requirement in April 2021.
SmartWater is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for the forensic analysis of SmartWater products. It is the company's testing facilities and processes that are accredited, not their products. [13]
Mike Cleary fully retired when Freshstream joined the company and Phil Cleary stayed as CEO for a further eighteen months to aid the integration process, until retiring in December 2021. [14]
Phil Cleary was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in 2009. [15]
A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card, is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart cards include a pattern of metal contacts to electrically connect to the internal chip. Others are contactless, and some are both. Smart cards can provide personal identification, authentication, data storage, and application processing. Applications include identification, financial, public transit, computer security, schools, and healthcare. Smart cards may provide strong security authentication for single sign-on (SSO) within organizations. Numerous nations have deployed smart cards throughout their populations.
Invisible ink, also known as security ink or sympathetic ink, is a substance used for writing, which is invisible either on application or soon thereafter, and can later be made visible by some means, such as heat or ultraviolet light. Invisible ink is one form of steganography.
Spray drying is a method of forming a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by rapidly drying with a hot gas. This is the preferred method of drying of many thermally-sensitive materials such as foods and pharmaceuticals, or materials which may require extremely consistent, fine particle size. Air is most commonly used as the heated drying medium; however, nitrogen may be used if the liquid is flammable or if the product is oxygen-sensitive.
Flash evaporation is the partial vapor that occurs when a saturated liquid stream undergoes a reduction in pressure by passing through a throttling valve or other throttling device. This process is one of the simplest unit operations. If the throttling valve or device is located at the entry into a pressure vessel so that the flash evaporation occurs within the vessel, then the vessel is often referred to as a flash drum.
Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial, and for personal use.
A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool equipment, or another process stream. As a necessary by-product, refrigeration creates waste heat that must be exhausted to ambience, or for greater efficiency, recovered for heating purposes. Vapor compression chillers may use any of a number of different types of compressors. Most common today are the hermetic scroll, semi-hermetic screw, or centrifugal compressors. The condensing side of the chiller can be either air or water cooled. Even when liquid cooled, the chiller is often cooled by an induced or forced draft cooling tower. Absorption and adsorption chillers require a heat source to function.
Utility location is the process of identifying and labeling public utility mains that are underground. These mains may include lines for telecommunication, electricity distribution, natural gas, cable television, fiber optics, traffic lights, street lights, storm drains, water mains, and wastewater pipes. In some locations, major oil and gas pipelines, national defense communication lines, mass transit, rail, and road tunnels also compete for space underground.
A security alarm is a system designed to detect intrusions, such as unauthorized entry, into a building or other areas, such as a home or school. Security alarms protect against burglary (theft) or property damage, as well as against intruders. Examples include personal systems, neighborhood security alerts, car alarms, and prison alarms.
Wärtsilä Oyj Abp, trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technologies for the energy sector, including gas, multi-fuel, liquid fuel and biofuel power plants and energy storage systems; and technologies for the marine sector, including cruise ships, ferries, fishing vessels, merchant ships, navy ships, special vessels, tugs, yachts and offshore vessels. Ship design capabilities include ferries, tugs, and vessels for the fishing, merchant, offshore and special segments. Services offerings include online services, underwater services, turbocharger services, and also services for the marine, energy, and oil and gas markets. At the end of December 2023, the company employed 17,800 workers.
Methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK, 4-methylpentan-2-one) is an organic compound with the condensed chemical formula (CH3)2CHCH2C(O)CH3. This ketone is a colourless liquid that is used as a solvent for gums, resins, paints, varnishes, lacquers, and nitrocellulose.
An absorption refrigerator is a refrigerator that uses a heat source to provide the energy needed to drive the cooling process. Solar energy, burning a fossil fuel, waste heat from factories, and district heating systems are examples of heat sources that can be used. An absorption refrigerator uses two coolants: the first coolant performs evaporative cooling and then is absorbed into the second coolant; heat is needed to reset the two coolants to their initial states. Absorption refrigerators are commonly used in recreational vehicles (RVs), campers, and caravans because the heat required to power them can be provided by a propane fuel burner, by a low-voltage DC electric heater or by a mains-powered electric heater. Absorption refrigerators can also be used to air-condition buildings using the waste heat from a gas turbine or water heater in the building. Using waste heat from a gas turbine makes the turbine very efficient because it first produces electricity, then hot water, and finally, air-conditioning—trigeneration.
Electronic discovery refers to discovery in legal proceedings such as litigation, government investigations, or Freedom of Information Act requests, where the information sought is in electronic format. Electronic discovery is subject to rules of civil procedure and agreed-upon processes, often involving review for privilege and relevance before data are turned over to the requesting party.
Bike registries are databases of unique, identifying information about bicycles and their ownership. Most registration programs use the unique serial numbers which are permanently affixed to most bicycles during manufacture.
The terms active packaging, intelligent packaging, and smart packaging refer to amplified packaging systems used with foods, pharmaceuticals, and several other types of products. They help extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, improve safety, and improve convenience.
Market reduction approach (MRA) is an approach to reducing crime by reducing the opportunity for thieves to fence or resell what they have stolen.
Aerial roof markings are symbols, letters or numbers on the roof of selected police vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, coast guard vehicles, cash-in-transit vans, buses and boats to enable aircraft or CCTV to identify them. These markings can be used to identify a specific vehicle, vehicle type or agency. The markings, depending on the vehicle, or information required, may also be displayed on the bonnet, boot, or other areas of the vehicle visible from the air.
SelectaDNA is a forensic property marking system used as part of crime prevention strategies for businesses and residential properties.
A spray is a dynamic collection of drops dispersed in a gas. The process of forming a spray is known as atomization. A spray nozzle is the device used to generate a spray. The two main uses of sprays are to distribute material over a cross-section and to generate liquid surface area. There are thousands of applications in which sprays allow material to be used most efficiently. The spray characteristics required must be understood in order to select the most appropriate technology, optimal device and size.
A burglar sign is a marking supposedly left on or near a property by a burglar or their accomplice, signalling in code that the building is vulnerable or unoccupied.
Operation Identification is a national community policing initiative in the United States that aims to deter property theft and facilitate the recovery of stolen property by encouraging citizens to mark valuable property with traceable identifiers, record serial numbers, and post warning signs.
Media related to SmartWater at Wikimedia Commons