Police Psychologists and Hostage Crisis Negotiation - Essay Example

? Scenario: You are a police psychologist for a major metropolitan area. You are also a member of its hostage negotiation team. You have been called to a crisis incident at 3:15 p.m. on a Friday. It is in a residential area about three blocks from a middle school and a public library. The information you have at this time is that the subject is a 42-year-old male who is holed up in his house with his wife, son, and a family friend. He has murdered his next-door neighbor and is threatening to kill those in the house if his demands are not met. One of his demands is for immunity from the murder charge if he surrenders without harming any of the people in the house. His other demands are a case of beer and some fast food soon. He wants his demands met or "something will happen". Any occasion or incident where any person is said to be taken against his or her will for an exchange of demand or performance of an action is called hostage taking. The incident involving the man and his family held up inside their house and where he demanded for immunity from the murder, case of beer and fast food is an example of hostage taking. There are categories of hostage-takers. Hostage-takers can be classified as those of political activists, mentally stable, criminal deviants and inmates (“Initial Response to a Hostage Situation”, n.d.). According to the Initial Response to a Hostage Situation (n.d.), the following are the hostage-taker categories: Political activists or terrorists are characterized as those very aggressive, impulsive, and devoted to their causes and often demand release of political prisoner, money or even publicity. Criminal deviants are those which are likely rational but caught in criminal act and for them to be released, use hostages as way of safely escaping. Mentally unstable are hostage-takers suffering from strange psychiatric condition which are often suicidal and use hostage taking situation as means of death. The man in the scenario is considered to be a criminal deviant. The act was caused by the murder done to his neighbour and the situation is used as a means to demand for a safe escape. He threatened to kill those people with him if his demands are not given. There are may be different types of structures of law enforcement team but in general, the structure is composed of the team leader, on-scene commander, negotiator, intelligence officer, communication officer, tactical team and police psychologist. As part of the team as police psychologist, there are generally two main roles: (1) participation in team development, training, and selection of personnel; and (2) operational assistance during the crisis itself, including monitoring of negotiation progress, psychological profiling of hostages and HTs, assessment of danger and risk level, monitoring the mental status of negotiators and other personnel at the scene, and participating in both operational and critical incident stress debriefings following the incident . (Miller, 2007) . According to Dr. Miller, “the highest fatality rate in hostage crises occurs during tactical incursion, the decision to order such an action is an excruciatingly difficult one.” This is when a police psychologist becomes an integral part of the team as the tactical team. Police psychologists are very important in the crisis negotiation because they are necessary in preparing the team of people responsible in dealing with a situation such as hostage taking when lives are at stake. The police psychologist must be able to make sure that the team to deal in the situation is prepared, well trained and is ready to negotiate and save lives. They are also important in analyzing the situation and the profile of the perpetrator and the team and this will really help in making sure that the protocols are being applied and modified according to each situation. Dr. Miller (2007) stated that “containment and negotiation strategies yield a 95 percent success rate in terms of resolving a hostage crisis without fatalities to either hostages or hostage-takers (HTs), which is a remarkable statistic for any form of lifesaving crisis intervention strategy.” Dr. Miller (2007) also stated that law enforcement deal with actual hostage taking fewer than 20% of their total incidents and is mostly successful in resolving the crises without any loss of life.  In his work entitled “Practical Police Psychology”, Dr. Miller stated three critical periods during a hostage taking situation. The first 15-45 minutes is very crucial because this is when confusion and fright or panic is at the most (Miller, 2007). The second period is during the surrender of the hostage takers when crisis team or negotiators should be very careful because this is when strong emotions, lack of coordination and ambivalence might lead the successful negotiation to go bad (Miller, 2007). The last of the three most critical periods is that of tactical assault or rescuing hostages (Miller, 2007). Given the scenario, the first thing to do is isolate the hostage taker and secure the perimeter to make sure that there won’t be any other person possible to be hurt and to make sure that there is enough freedom of movement of the hostage negotiation team. With the situation taking place in a residential area and near a school and library, there is a need to have a scene control which includes dissemination of information to ensure safety. There should be availability of surrounding community to help and coordinate with the team. With these, communication must be established well. According to article entitled “Applied Training is the Secret to Active Listening” published at Tactical Response Magazine, most of successful hostage crises resolutions were effect of solid perception of the hostage taker and progress of mutual trust between negotiator and the taker. Thus the most effective tool to successful negotiation is active listening (“Applied Training”, 2009). The article quoted an ex- NYPD hostage negotiator Dominick J. Misino stating “Hostage negotiation is nothing more than a conversation under stress with people’s lives at stake, active listening is the foundation on which that conversation is based.” The sooner that good communication is established, the less time the hostage taker has to consider extreme options. However, it is possible that there will be problems along the way. The perpetrator might think that the negotiators are not sincere and will not grant his demands. Thus for the negotiators to be able to resolve these possible problems, they should show they are interested in the person and must add trust, empathy and honest communication in the negotiation (“Applied Training”, 2009). Trust will help the hostage taker believe that negotiators will not hurt him if he comes out (“Applied Training”, 2009). Empathy helps the hostage taker feel he has still reasons to live for and that he can still correct the situation (“Applied Training”, 2009). Honest communication will help the negotiation team to acquire situation information used to tactical resolution (“Applied Training”, 2009). The information must be gathered from a person who knows the hostage taker very well. It is very important that negotiators will know the perpetrator well for them to understand the situation. The negotiation team should know the important information such as cause of the crisis, the relationship of the hostage taker and the hostages, the arms used by the hostages, mental capability of the perpetrator and history of the crime involvement of the taker. When you have the information and the negotiation is going smoothly, make sure to know the assurances needed by the perpetrator and find out if the negotiation team can accommodate the said assurances (Miller, 2007).According to Dr. Miller (2007), when negotiating with a hostage taker, do not rush things and make sure to recognize a mutually agreed plan by being sensitive to cultural and especially personal issues. When everything is set and final, make sure that everyone involve understands what they should to do (Miller, 2007). Both the tactical team and negotiating team should know the plan to be able to achieve a successful negotiation (Miller, 2007). Even with little information, negotiation is very likely to become successful through active communication based on the understanding of the perpetrator’s motives and personality when dealing during communication to the hostage taker. Thus there is really no specific formula when dealing a hostage crisis but the procedures should be adapted to the needs of each case or situation. The knowledge about the hostage taker and the kind of situation will help in thinking and planning an outline that suits the situation. Thus the procedures must be flexible and can be modified in each case. With this, there is a big chance of a successful outcome of the incident without any loss of life. There should be a strategic application of appropriate technique to proper situation for us to achieve and accomplish our goal. It is thus important that we not only use the techniques but we should know when and which of the techniques are to be applied. References: Applied Training is the Secret to Active Listening. (2009). Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://metric-lab.com/applied-training-is-the-secret-to-active-listening/ Initial Response to a Hostage Situation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2011from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/accp/mp1006/lsn5.htm Miller, L. (2007). Practical Police Psychology. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from http://www.policeone.com/standoff/articles/1247470-Hostage-negotiations-Psychological-strategies-for-resolving-crises/ Read More