Hi everyone... my question is :
Review the processes by which an unknown white crystalline substance seized by the police could be identified.

Any help is much appreciated.. thank you!

They have a kit that they use right then and there that tells them right away...
Watch Cops. They did the test using the trunk of the guys car for a table.

In normal procedure, if it is a suspected drug, it is merely tested against and with a kit to identify drugs, there are various tests depending on the type of drug they believe it is. If they are only caring if it is a drug, they will just see if it is, if it is not a drug they will not go further trying to identity.

But to find out what it is, it would be sent to a large crime lab and it would be broken down into its compounds and that would tell them what substance it is by its chemical make up

Hey thanks a lot guys!

I don't know if you are doing course work or not, but the thing is, real police work has little comparison with the CSI shows on TV.
First seldom do you have crime lab people in the field, many small departments don't even have crime lab people, the office on patrol or sometimes a dectitive takes all the evidence that is then mailed to the crime lab to be reviewed.

Also all of the CSI TV show tests costs 1000's and 1000's of dollars and seldom done in most cases

For my example, you are arresting someone for drugs, you just test the substance for drugs, if it is not drugs you care less what it is,
If this was a break in, seldom will a found substance even be tested, just not enough time and almost never enough money to do tests like that.