Police Scotland's relentless plugging of SmartWater Technology Ltd's chemical marker product continues.
Locals at community council meetings have already been bombarded with repeated positive accounts of the product over the last few months. Now, journalists are getting the same treatment with release of a Police Scotland email this afternoon which mentions the company name no fewer than eight times.
Police Scotland planted a mountain bike coated in SmartWater at various locations in Edinburgh over recent weeks. It didn't grow, but when it was eventually pinched from outside the University Library in George Square last week, officers traced it to an address in Hyvot Gardens and detained a man in connection with the theft.
Under a special UV lamp, he was found to be covered in the otherwise invisible solution.
The sting operation was part of Police Scotland and SmartWater's campaign to 'proactively target those involved in [acquisitive] crimes of this nature'.
Make no mistake – Spurtle doesn't like thieves and we welcome the potential deterrent effect of this innovation. However, the extremely chummy, high-profile and commercially valuable aspects of such public–private collaborations make us uncomfortable.
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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@theSpurtle I did wonder, too, whether the bike was actually locked or whether this was a honeytrap style thing.
@NTCleanStreets Strongly suspect that, under special UV lamp, police officers were found to be covered in otherwise invisible SmartHoney.
Scott Dimelow They'll just wear disposable boiler suits now!
Colin Brown A neighbour in the Dudleys had two bikes nicked from his back garden on Saturday night. The back gardens are fully enclosed; the escape route took them through our garden which I'd thought relatively impregnable. Wrong!