Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals (2018)

Chapter: Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Appendix H

Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Option Supplemental Measures Benefits Costsa Risks Precedent
Purchase requires evidence of commercial status, with the right to refuse sales.
  • Outreach
  • Training of retailers to request/verify licenses and identify suspicious behavior
  • Reporting of suspicious behavior, fraud, theft, or loss
  • Other documentation (e.g., electronic record keeping for transactions and/or data analytics)
  • Audits and inspections, including mystery shopping
  • Capability to impede all non-commercial acquisitions through legitimate channels (+++)
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirements (++)b
  • Capability to track and correlate suspicious activity, etc., ex ante; investigate incidents, ex post (+)
  • Capability to provide feedback on implementation (++)
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy (+)
  • Non-economic social benefits (+++)
  • Public-sector expenditures on administration, outreach, training, data intake and analysis, and audits and inspections (+)
  • Public-sector expenditures on law enforcement (+)c
  • Private-sector expenditures on administration, outreach, training, reporting, documentation, and audits and inspections (+)
  • Forgone sales, use, and associated surplus (+++)d
  • Additional transactions time (+)
  • Non-economic social costs (+++)
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentional
  • Institutional amnesia and/or employee turnovere
  • Outright circumvention, e.g., via diversion or document falsification
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • Displacement
  • Over implementation
  • Commercial disruption
  • Discriminatory profiling, potentially offset by training and auditing
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Canadian regulations
  • Some United States regulations on pesticides
  • Existing domestic outreach programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing trade group programs that address training and reporting
Page 185 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Purchase requires either evidence of commercial status or license, with a quantity restriction on licensed purchases and the right to refuse sales.
  • Outreach
  • Training of retailers to request/verify licenses and identify suspicious behavior
  • Reporting of suspicious behavior, fraud theft, or loss
  • Other documentation (e.g., electronic record keeping for transactions and/or data analytics)
  • Audits and inspections, including mystery shopping
  • Capability to impede illegitimate noncommercial acquisitions through legitimate channels (++)
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirements (++)b
  • Capability to track and correlate suspicious activity, etc, ex ante; investigate incidents, ex post (+++)
  • Capability to provide feedback on implementation (++)
  • Vetting for license could draw attention to bad actors (n/a)
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy (+++)
  • Non-economic social benefits (++)
  • Public-sector expenditures on licenses administration, outreach, training, data intake and analysis, and audits and inspections (+++)f
  • Public-sector expenditures on law enforcement (++)c
  • Private-sector expenditures on licenses, administration, outreach, training, reporting, documentation, and audits and inspections (+++)
  • Forgone sales, use, and associated surplus (++)d
  • Additional transactions time (++)
  • Non-economic social costs (++)
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentional
  • Institutional amnesia and/or employee turnovere
  • Outright circumvention, e.g., via diversion, improper licensing, or document falsification
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • Displacement
  • Over implementation
  • Commercial disruption
  • Discriminatory profiling, potentially offset by training and auditing
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Canadian regulations
  • Existing state regulations in the United States
  • Existing domestic outreach programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing trade group programs that address training and reporting
Page 186 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Option Supplemental Measures Benefits Costsa Risks Precedent
Purchase requires either evidence of commercial status or signature and government-issued identification, with a quantity restriction on registry purchases and the right to refuse sales.
  • Outreach
  • Training of retailers to request signature and ID at point of sale and identify suspicious behavior
  • Reporting of suspicious behavior, fraud, theft, or loss
  • Other documentation (e.g., electronic record keeping for transactions and/or data analytics)
  • Audits and inspections, including mystery shopping
  • Capability to deter and reduce illegitimate noncommercial acquisitions through legitimate channels (+)
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirements (++)b
  • Capability to track and correlate suspicious activity, etc., ex ante; investigate incidents, ex post (++)
  • Capability to provide feedback on implementation (++)
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy (++)
  • Non-economic social benefits (+)
  • Public-sector expenditures on administration, outreach, training, data intake and analysis, and audits and inspections (++)
  • Public-sector expenditures on law enforcement (+++)c
  • Private-sector expenditures on administration, outreach, training, reporting, documentation, and audits and inspections, implementation (++)
  • Forgone sales, use, and associated surplus (+)d
  • Additional transaction time (+++)
  • Non-economic social costs (+)
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentional
  • Institutional amnesia and/or employee turnovere
  • Outright circumvention, e.g., via diversion or document falsification
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • Displacement
  • Over implementation
  • Commercial disruption
  • Discriminatory profiling, potentially offset by training and auditing
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Canadian regulations
  • Some United States regulations on pesticides
  • Existing state regulations in the United States
  • Existing domestic outreach programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing trade group programs that address training and reporting
Page 187 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Business as usual with outreach.
  • Awareness of chemicals and concerns
  • Capability to deter and reduce illegitimate noncommercial acquisitions through legitimate channels
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy
  • Non-economic social benefits
  • Public-sector and/or private-sector expenditures on administration and implementation, including time and materials
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentionalg
  • Institutional amnesia and/or employee turnovere
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • Displacement
  • Over implementation
  • Discriminatory profiling
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Existing domestic outreach programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing trade group programs that address training and reporting
Business as usual with training and reporting on suspicious behavior, theft, and loss.
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirementsb
  • Capability to deter and reduce illegitimate noncommercial acquisitions through legitimate channels
  • Capability to track and correlate suspicious activity, etc., ex ante; investigate incidents, ex post
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy
  • Non-economic social benefits
  • Public-sector and/or private-sector expenditures on administration and implementation, including time and materials
  • Public-sector expenditures on data intake and analysish
  • Public-sector expenditures on law-enforcement
  • Non-economic social costs
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentionalg
  • Institutional amnesia and/or employee turnovere
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • Displacement
  • Over implementation
  • Discriminatory profiling, potentially offset by training
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Existing domestic outreach programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing trade group programs that address training and reporting
  • Existing commercial practices that are targeted toward other areas
Page 188 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
Save
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Option Supplemental Measures Benefits Costsa Risks Precedent
Business as usual with other documentation (e.g., electronic record keeping for transactions and/or data analytics).
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirementsb
  • Capability to deter and reduce illegitimate noncommercial acquisitions through legitimate channels
  • Capability to track and correlate suspicious activity, etc., ex ante; investigate incidents, ex post
  • Better visibility of retail transactions for improvements in policy
  • Non-economic social benefits
  • Public-sector and/or private-sector expenditures on administration and implementation, including time, materials, and capital outlays, for record keeping
  • Public-sector expenditures on data intake and analysish
  • Public-sector expenditures on law-enforcement costs
  • Non-economic social costs
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentionalg
  • Unintentional knowledge transfere
  • Displacement
  • Existing commercial practices that are targeted toward other areas
Business as usual with cautionary labeling.
  • Awareness of chemicals and concerns
  • Product identification
  • Non-economic social benefits
  • Public-sector and/or private-sector expenditures on administration and implementation, including time and materials
  • Non-economic social costs
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentionalg
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • EU/UK regulations
  • Existing commercial practices that are targeted toward other areas
Page 189 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Business as usual with auditing and mystery shopping, partnered with training, reporting, or other measures.
  • Awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms and requirementsb
  • Capability to provide feedback on implementation
  • Non-economic social benefits
  • Public-sector and/or private-sector expenditures on administration and implementation, including time and materials
  • Non-economic social costs
  • Non-compliance, inadvertent or intentionalg
  • Unintentional knowledge transfer
  • EU/UK regulations

NOTE: The “+”, “++” and “+++” designations represent the relative rankings of the strategy package by type of benefit or cost. A “+++” implies that an option is most beneficial or costly for a particular type of benefit or cost and a “+” implies that it is least beneficial or costly. If all three strategy packages rank equally they obtain a “++”. Vetting was unranked (n/a, not applicable) because it pertains only to licensing. a) Expenditures include time and materials and capital outlays, e.g., for record-keeping systems. b) For a voluntary measure, this benefit might be limited to awareness of chemicals, concerns, and implementation mechanisms, absent requirements. c) If retailers report fraud, suspicious behavior, or additional theft and loss, then law-enforcement agencies would incur additional costs. d) Framed as an opportunity cost, this would amount to the difference in the value of alternatives, if available, to sellers and buyers along the supply chain and at retail. e) Institutional amnesia and employee turnover might also be treated as a subset of or reason for noncompliance. f) If licenses are fee-based, then public expenditures on licensing and related administration would be limited to those exceeding the fee. g) Noncompliance as a contractual or regulatory matter could occur under a voluntary or mandatory program, respectively. h) Assignment of any cost to the public sector envisions that some aspects of data intake and analysis, additional to that covered under implementation, would involve sensitive information or require access to restricted information that would be handled by a government agency or contractor.

Page 190 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 184 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 185 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 186 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 187 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 188 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 189 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Page 190 Cite Bookmark
Suggested Citation: "Appendix H: Examples of Retail-Level Control Strategies and Other Measures or Activities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24862.
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Next Chapter: Appendix I: Committee Member and Staff Biographies
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