SmartWater CSI, LLC is a British company that has been involved in forensic marking technology for over 17 years. Their products include a chemical “DNA” marker that can be applied to a piece of property to give a positive identification at a later date, should it be illegally appropriated, and a sort of invisible dye pack that can be employed by law enforcement to “mark” a criminal suspect during the crime. Business owners can install SmartWater devices that spray the marking chemicals on robbers and thieves so the suspects are tagged as they leave. Recently, SmartWater has begun North American operations out of Ft. Lauderdale. I spoke to a representative for this product at the FLEPRU conference.
SmartWater CSI’s technology was developed by Phil Cleary, who retired from law enforcement service in the U.K. following injury on the job. His brother is a forensic chemist and together, they came up with their proprietary water-based solution that uses rare-earth metals to offer billions of unique fingerprint-like codes. The SmartWater solution is visible under ultraviolet light. It is heat resistant and is impossible to remove, according to SmartWater. It can easily used to mark such ungainly things as catalytic converters or copper wiring, for instance.
This product has the potential to deter crime and well as solve it, and that is the approach many south Florida law enforcement agencies are taking. Public roll-outs of SmartWater CSI have taken place at the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, Riviera Beach Police Department, and North Miami Beach Police Department.
I have added the videos below to show some of SmartWater’s capabilities.
SmartWater CSI states that they have had over 1.200+ convictions worldwide. Arrests have been made in Florida based on this forensic marking technology. With wide acceptance by the law enforcement community, a product such as this could deter crime, greatly increase the recovery of stolen property, and increase the likelihood of identifying the bad guys.
Randall
