Digital Water Marks Thieves

Crooked criminal hearts may have fluttered and skipped a beat Monday when some of Britain’s most notorious thieves opened a valentine from an unwelcome secret admirer — one of London’s top female police chiefs.

But the greeting — in which Chief Superintendent Vicki Marr wrote "thinking of you and what you do" — was not so much an amorous expression to the underworld as part of a sting designed to catch hard-core burglars using new chemical microdot crime-fighting technology.

SmartWater 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.

By Robert Andrews

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