Co-op launches SmartWater fog cannons to combat crime

Co-op’s commitment to colleague and community safety has seen the ‘launch’ SmartWater fog cannons. The forensic first is designed to deter crime by deploying a dence fog to obscure vision while linking criminals and stolen goods back to the scene of a crime.
Co-op is working with SmartWater and security fog specialists PROTECT to roll-out the new forensic deterrent in its food stores in towns, cities and villages across the UK.  
The move forms part of the retailer’s investment in innovative technology to keep its colleagues safe, and follows the launch of its “Safer Colleagues, Safer Communities” campaign. The roll-out comes against a backdrop of rising retail crime, with the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showing the direct costs of crime rising to over £700 million.
The fog cannons are particularly effective in the kiosk area – a target for criminal behaviour due to the sale of age restricted products. Once activated, the fog obscures an intruder’s vision and covers the criminal in a spray containing SmartWater’s unique forensic signature. Increasing the risk to criminals of stolen goods being tracked by Police and helping to secure convictions. An amount of SmartWater spray equivalent in size to a speck of dust can help Police with identification. It is guaranteed to last at least five years.
Florian Mattinson, Managing Director of SmartWater Technology Limited, said: “With hundreds of criminal convictions to date and a 100% conviction rate in court, criminals are aware of SmartWater’s ability to place them at the scene of a crime. This crime-beating innovation is the result of a joint venture between the market leaders in forensic and fogging technology.
“This fog represents a further significant step in retail security in communities, one which combines deterrence, vision-obscuring fog and traceability.”
The move forms part of the Co-op’s multi-million-pound investment in innovative technology to keep its colleagues safe, with the retailer’s “Safer Colleagues, Safer Communities” campaign addressing violence and crime against colleagues and the communities in which they live.