A free DNA-type liquid that “significantly” reduces the risk of burglary will be available this Friday (February 14) at Lewisham Shopping Centre.  

SmartWater is a way of marking valuables with an almost invisible liquid that is permanent and individually coded.  

Inspector Benn Pollard told residents at a Lee Green Assembly meeting on Tuesday (February 11) that the rollout of SmartWater kits would be extended across the borough and on offer at a community engagement stand this week.  

He said: “SmartWater is essentially a DNA type, ultraviolet solution that you mark your property with and it goes hard and can’t be removed. 

“It has its own unique identifiable serial number so when you get the SmartWater put on it gets registered to your address and if we recover any property when we’re executing warrants or we arrest people we can then have it forensically examined and they can tell us the barcode within the solution. 

“We can [then] locate the address, return the property and also link the person responsible to the offence. 

“We’ve established that when we hit a street with smart water and we do every house along that street and we put up signs, we are seeing significant reduction in burglaries in that area.” 

The free kits, one per household, will be available at the stand from 10am to 4pm.  

Interested residents will need to bring proof of address and register on the day.  

The security kits include a bottle of SmartWater, two window stickers, information leaflets and a registration form.