Hostage Negotiations for the Street Cop

The public at large generally sees negotiations as the traditional hostage situation. This kind of incident was made most famous in the movie "Dog Day Afternoon". However, this is only a small percentage of the overall negotiations that occur across the globe. Negotiations comes into play in barricaded subjects, hostage takers, suicidal subjects and varying other incidents. Negotiations can be the most stressful time in any officers career. Even if an officer is not a member of an organized team, they will eventually be placed into a situation where they will have to negotiate with someone in a stressful situation. This can be a bank robbery gone wrong or a domestic crisis that has escalated. No matter the situation, the officer must use every tool at there disposal. The most important in this case is there brain.

I have been a police officer for 15 years. During that time I have been on our departments hostage negotiations team two separate times. I am currently the commander of our Crisis Negotiations Team. That is the current hot name for hostage negotiations. No matter the title, we still do the negotiations. I have had the privilege of working with and being trained by some of the best negotiators in the country. I was fortunate enough to go through a school taught by Frank Bolz Jr. His name may not ring any bells, but he one of the founders of the first negotiations unit for the New York City Police Department and was involved in many of that city's most famous negotiations incidents, including the one "Dog Day Afternoon" was based.

When a first responding officer arrives at a scene, their initial mindset is to solve the problem. The is one of the traits that makes police officers unique among the public, they like and are good at solving problems. When an officer is faced with a hostage taker, barricaded subject or suicidal person (HT/B/S) situation they can still rely on the ability to solve problems, but they must remember that time is their biggest ally. Do not rush in and do not try to be a hero.

First Things First