Valuable household property will be marked by unique security paint known as SmartWater in a cutting edge forensic science pilot project that could put criminals under the microscope in Inverclyde.
The paint has a unique composition for each house, and is modelled on the concept of DNA profiling. A tiny speck of paint can be applied to any household item, from laptops to jewellery, lawnmowers to DVDs, allowing recovered stolen property to be traced back to the house it was taken from.
Thousands of householders will take part in a pilot project run by Solas Assist, trading as the non-profit company INVEST, which received £100,000 of funding from Communities Scotland to carry out and evaluate the scheme. Inverclyde Regeneration Partnership has also contributed over £120,000.
Communities Scotland area Director for North and South Clyde, Alex Robertson, said: "We are pleased to be supporting this project and its efforts to improve community safety for both housing association tenants and the wider community. Communities Scotland has been involved from the outset and we will fund an independent expert to work with partners to evaluate the results. Based on results in England this project in Inverclyde could have benefits for other parts of the country."
Similar schemes in England have seen, on average, a 45% reduction in crime rates.
