Police in Staffordshire have praised SmartWater as a 'breakthrough' in the fight against a growing trend in metal theft.
With rapidly rising demand for scrap metal around the world, prices paid for material have rocketed, leading to increasing instances of thieves taking metal from wherever they can find it, including church roofs, power and telephone cabling and even war memorials.
But Staffordshire police said that the increasing use of SmartWater to mark at-risk metals with a unique forensic code was helping them to turn the situation around.
SmartWater markings can be viewed with easily portable ultraviolet lamps, allowing police or other investigators to quickly and easily check whether it has been used. SmartWater contains a forensic code which can be analysed to irrefutably prove the true owner of any marked item.
Because criminals are well-aware of the power of SmartWater, its use acts as a powerful deterrent against thefts being committed.
Combined with a rounded risk-management approach, including police checks on scrap metal dealers and co-operation between multiple agencies, the dangers in committing metal theft continue to grow.
Sergeant Lee Crowther, of Staffordshire Moorlands Local Policing Team, told Your Leek Paper: “The use of technology, such as SmartWater, is a massive breakthrough, as it allows us to identify where the stolen metal comes from.
Police in the Staffordshire Moorlands area are now working to spread the message among criminals, praising SmartWater as an effective deterrent as much as a source of reliable evidence.