Watch: SmartWater security set to be world beater with Met police video
Police forces around the world are looking to team up with a Shropshire security company after the Metropolitan Police produced a video demonstrating its capabilities.
Telford-based SmartWater is one year into a three-year contract with the Met to deliver protection to 440,000 homes across the capital using its forensic marking liquid.
The substance glows under UV light, and each household has its own unique "code" within the liquid that can then be used to match stolen products to their owners.
Now the Met has issued a video on social media showing the capabilities of the product.
The video shows a man marking a pebble on a beach using Smartwater, throwing it out to sea, then returning at night, and at low tide, to retrieve the same stone.
Smartwater chief executive Phil Cleary, a former police officer who founded the business with his brother Mike in 1993, said the video was helping both the Met and its own business.
"It's funded by the Met completely, and it's unusual for the police to actively endorse a commercial company," he said.
"It has gone all round the world, and we have had enquiries from the police force in San Francisco as a result."
The company, which still has its international headquarters at Nedge Hill in Telford, is already ramping up its international operations.
A £3 million bond issue in 2013 has given the company the capital to invest in its US operation, and it now has a base in Florida to go with those in six countries in Europe and five in South America.
"We are really looking at leveraging the brand now," Mr Cleary said. "We raised £3 million on the bond, and have been investing that in the USA.
"We just won a major contract with a big retailer out there, Stein Mart, which is to do with preventing shoplifting."
He said the company was now also hoping to come to an agreement with the insurance industry which could also help to deliver sales for the company.
"We are working on the insurance angle very hard," Mr Cleary added. "We really believe we are going to reap the benefit of all this hard work.
"We have been working with the police effectively pro bono, and the insurance industry are reaping the benefits without paying anything towards it. They need to endorse this and support us."
The partnership between SmartWater and the Metropolitan Police was launched in March 2015 under the joint initiative called "MetTrace" where SmartWater was appointed as sole supplier of traceable liquid forensic technology.
Its methods involve using high-impact tactics to influence criminals and deter them from committing crimes. That has led to an 85 per cent decline in household burglaries in SmartWater's test areas.
