Tiny fragments of glass often surround criminals involved in jewelry store heists or violent acts like ram-raids and explosive ATM attacks. Whether smashing display cases with hammers, ramming windows with a vehicle, or detonating explosives, minuscule glass fragments find their way onto the clothing or footwear of perpetrators. These tiny glass splinters play a crucial role in linking suspects to crime scenes.

The database is in use since 2014 in the Netherlands and has identified or linked dozens of suspects to explosive ATM attacks, crimes that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Explosive attacks reached their peak in the Netherlands in 2016. One group of criminals who committed explosive attacks in 2015 and 2016 are linked to 19 different cases due to the database. 7 Men were convicted from 5 to 10 years of prison.

Exporting Criminal Expertise 

Explosive attacks became prevalent in Germany after 2016. In 2017, five men carried out multiple explosive attacks within four days in Germany. The main suspect, a 29-year-old man from Utrecht, was sentenced to seven years in prison based on glass splinters found in his balaclava linked to the crime scene. Dutch criminals are identified as the perpetrators in 70 to 80 percent of explosive attacks in Germany, turning it into a Dutch 'export product.' The Netherlands and Germany are working together in establishing a joint database to combat this cross-border criminal activity.

The Dutch database currently holds nearly 650 reference pieces of glass from approximately 225 criminal cases, while the German counterpart has accumulated over 2000 reference pieces. Since 2019, 50 investigations have compared glass splinters to reference glass in the database, yielding matches in over half of the cases.