Negotiation concepts for commanders

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Jan, 1999 by Gary W. Noesner

Tactical Role of the Negotiator

Once the on-scene commander authorizes tactical intervention, the negotiation team can and should assume a proactive tactical support role, softening up subjects and making them more vulnerable to tactical action. The negotiation team accomplishes this by setting up deliveries in a predictable pattern for subsequent tactical exploitation, making concessions that cause subjects to lower their guard, occupying subjects on the phone during the assault (thus specifically locating them), identifying the leader or most violent subject for tactical focus, getting subjects to vacate the stronghold and thereby become more accessible to tactical action, and explaining away any tactical movements seen or heard by the subject.

On-scene commanders frequently overlook the negotiator's role during tactical interventions. They often fear that negotiators, armed with the knowledge of impending tactical action, will somehow betray this information to the subject over the phone. Yet, the FBI's review of thousands of cases has not identified a single incident in which this has happened. By contrast, many examples exist of negotiators, who, after being made aware of tactical plans, have masked or covered tactical movement that might have otherwise compromised the operation.

In a recent case, the tactical team, believing the subject was asleep, made an early morning entry into a hostage stronghold without telling the negotiation team. What might have happened if negotiation team members had decided to call into the crisis site to talk to the subject? Had they done so, they unwittingly would have awakened the subject, who then might have become aware of the ongoing police entry and decided to resist violently. Alternately, the subject might have awakened, heard the tactical team approaching, and phoned the negotiation team seeking an explanation. Without any knowledge of the plan, the negotiation team would have been unprepared to offer a believable cover story explaining the noise or might have hung up to find out what was going on instead of purposefully keeping the subject occupied on the phone.

The Team View of Success

Negotiation team members are law enforcement officers, trained to work toward resolving crisis situations in the most risk-effective way possible. Tactical intervention may, indeed, represent the best solution; it does not equate to negotiation failure. Statistically, negotiations successfully resolve most incidents. Moreover, even if the subject does not surrender peacefully, negotiations nonetheless succeed by stabilizing the incident through verbal containment; buying time to gather intelligence, staff, equipment, and other resources; and allowing the tactical team to identify the subject's vulnerabilities and practice its planned entry.

CONCLUSION

The art of hostage negotiation has come a long way, and crisis negotiators have developed the skills and knowledge they need to peacefully resolve even the most volatile incidents. The successful resolution of such incidents usually rests in understanding the dynamics of different situations, and on-scene commanders must understand the type of critical incident they face in order to identify the appropriate law enforcement strategy. Whether a hostage situation in which the subject aims to force authorities to fulfill certain demands or a nonhostage situation in which the subject has no clear goals or substantive demands and expresses anger, rage, or frustration in a senseless or self-destructive way, negotiation remains a vital tool to successfully resolve the crisis.