‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ Team Leads on SmartWater Initiative with Community Council

The North Wales Police ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ Team has been formed to work with communities and businesses across North Wales to minimise crime, and catch and convict offenders who commit:

• Burglary
• Robbery
• Theft
• Vehicle crime

These are crimes where the offender profits from the crime. They’re collectively known as ‘acquisitive crime’. We understand the impact these types of offences can have on individuals, communities, and businesses and we want to do everything we can to stop them.

PCSO Tiff Davis works in the Eastern section of the ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ Team and, with the help of Sergeant Sue Carrington, has been working alongside Nannerch Community Council to promote the use of SmartWater in their community.

SmartWater is a traceable liquid and forensic asset marking system which is applied to valuable items to deter theft and identify thieves. The liquid leaves a unique identifier, whose presence is invisible except under ultraviolet light.

Nannerch Community Council has funded 100 SmartWater kits for households in the village. The kits are purchased from Deter Tech who produce the SmartWater kits and offer a significant discount to groups who submit large orders.

PCSO Davis and Sgt Carrington helped to distribute these kits to residents and explained how they work, as well as putting together some ‘Safer Neighbourhood’ crime prevention advice packs to go with each SmartWater kit.

Superintendent Helen Douglas who leads the ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ Team said “We know that offenders tend to return to a neighbourhood which they’ve already entered, and where they’ve already committed crime; we want to break that pattern.

We know that it’s less likely that offenders will target property which is protected with forensic markings which make it easier to connect offenders with a specific crime, secure a conviction and to return property to the rightful owner. These actions will help prevent offenders from targeting neighbourhoods and make our communities safer.

As part of our Safer Neighbourhoods work our team have been working with neighbourhoods and community councils across North Wales to offer the protection through forensic property marking technology. This technology helps you keep and your property safe and secure. We encourage you to mark your property with SmartWaterTech, an invisible forensic technology, and we will display signs throughout the Safer Neighbourhood areas, stating that property is securely protected with forensic technology.

We are delighted to see the community of Nannerch has supported this initiative and are very grateful for the support of the Nannerch Community Council who organised drop in sessions for residents, lead by Sergeant Carrington and PCSO Davis. The Nannerch community sees our first Safer Neighbourhood Area through the We Don’t Buy Crime Programme and we very much look forward to supporting other communities across Wales under this same initiative.”

You can find out more about our ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ initiative and the work we’re doing to help prevent crime and keep communities safe on our website - We Don't Buy Crime | North Wales Police