What specialized knowledge is required by an investigator with respect to the theft of agrichemicals?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

To be effective in the investigation of agrichemical thefts, the investigator must become familiar with the legal supply channels and the principle agrichemicals that are used in his or her region. In particular, it is important to know that the same basic chemical or formulation may be sold by several different manufacturers under different product names. For example, atrazine is manufactured and sold by Ciba-Geigy as AAtrex; it is used as a corn herbicide. Imagine the difficulty created for an investigation if a victim reports the theft of "50 gallons of atrazine" and it is entered into police records that way when the victim was using atrazine as a synonym for AAtrex.
Finally, because of their precarious economic situation, some farmers will engage in the theft of agrichemicals or will readily purchase such commodities at "bargain prices." Because farmers are the end users of many agrichemicals, they know that a multi-gallon plastic jug of agrichemicals can be emptied in less than a minute, the jug readily and totally burned because of its high density, and the product immediately applied, making detection difficult. One method to identify farmers who are possibly illegal receivers of agrichemicals is to determine those whose purchasing patterns through legal supply channels are inconsistent with their crop needs.