Crisis and Hostage Negotiations
By: Brennan Chesterton, David Moloney, Aaron Waldron, Brock Young
Preservation Verses Promptness
General Principles of Crisis Negotiation
- A hook is a term for what can be used to extract a person from their crisis.
- A hot button is the opposite, something that will anger the subject and make the situation worse.
- Think Tank: Identifies hooks and hot buttons.
- Messenger: Physically carries messages to command.
- Guard: Makes sure no one enters if they aren't allowed.
- Chronographer: Records and logs the events.
- Radio Operator: Ensures all electronics and equipment is working properly.
Crisis Negotiations
The value of human life is always paramount to police, but sometimes that value of life isn't the same for bystanders.
- Washington, DC. A man took his carpool members hostage on a bridge crossing the Potomac river.
- Everyone was rescued and no one was hurt at all, but it took a very long time.
- Over the next few days
the Washington Post
received letters from
the delayed commuters
that the police should have
just shot the man so
everyone continue on
with their day.
Successful negotiations consist of time and information.
Crisis negotiations gather intelligence which gains painless entry or to ensure painless exit and to ultimately keep everyone alive.
Crisis Situations are a Team Effort
- Act quickly to promote safety and advert disaster;
- Make contact verbally, when appropriate;
- Slow things down, time is an ally;
- Gather information;
- Assess the subject and situation;
- Help the subject understand their crisis;
- Set achievable goals
- Avoid propositions and ultimatums;
- Ignore deadlines;
- Promote positive outlook and outcomes.
The process in which one gathers information to save:
- Victims
- Civilians
- Responders
- Subject
Crises can be very stressful,
not only to the subject, but
also the negotiators.
Spreading the load over a team
can help solve the situation
faster.
- Terrorism is the premeditated use or threat to use violence.
- Influenced by political or social objectives through the intimidation of large audiences.
- Typically staging attacks on civilian targets, including embassies and airliners.
- As we listen, we learn.
- Listen for words, what is said and what isn't said, as well as their gestures or tone of voice.
- Active listening works well in emotionally charged situations.
Mechanics of Active Listening
Roles in Crisis Situations
History of Crisis Negotiations
Soviet Standard Operation Procedure
- Team Leader: Selects who will do what, commands the response.
- Primary Negotiator: Person who deals with the subject directly.
- Secondary Negotiator: Listens and offers suggestions, can recommend a break or change of primary.
- Intelligence: A unit of people busy gathering information on the subject/ situation.
- Tolerate silence - when the subject is done talking, say nothing. Wait for him/her to continue with their train of thought.
- If you can't sit or wait, repeat the last few words they said.
- Ask open ended questions - don't encourage or force the subject to answer a question or force them to say the wrong answer.
- Minimalist approach - "Like when", "Really?", "Oh?", and "Then what?".
- There are types of terrorism which impacts certain areas, home financed, planned, and executed.
- Incidents funded or planned abroad are transnational terrorist events/attacks.
- Three major hostage taking series - Kidnappings, Skyjackings, and other hostage events.
Harpers Ferry, October 1859 (USA)
- John Brown and follower intended on stealing from the US arsenal.
- Quick response from the locals, the plan of theft and escape was stopped.
- Dozens of hostages were near the front gate of the town fire house.
Contains a dramatic lack of value on life
- Moscow Dubrovka Theatre, October 2002;
- Few dozen terrorists seized the theatre of 300 people;
- 3 days into discussion, not negotiation, the Russian military pumped lethal gas into the vents of the theatre;
- Resulted in the deaths of more than 100 hostages and didn't even kill the terrorists;
- The Russians considered this a victory.
Sources
Objective of Negotiator of the Situation
- Some townspeople took it into their own hands, shooting at the invaders, but were shot and injured in the process.
- Truce and removal of wounded people was agreed upon.
- Hours into the siege marines arrived and the siege ended with the rescue of the hostages.
When making a decision among alternative counter-terrorism acts, policymakers need to account for such negative and positive correlations.
- Greenstone, J. L. (2013). The elements of police hostage and crisis negotiations: Critical incidents and how to respond to them. Routledge.
- McMains, M. J., & Mullins, W. C. (2014). Crisis negotiations: Managing critical incidents and hostage situations in law enforcement and corrections. Routledge.
- Grubb, A. (2010). Modern day hostage (crisis) negotiation: The evolution of an art form within the policing arena. Aggression And Violent Behavior, 15341-348. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2010.06.002
- Strentz, T. (2013). Hostage/crisis Negotiations : Lessons Learned From the Bad, the Mad, and the Sad. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.
- Slatkin, A. A. (2010). Communication in Crisis and Hostage Negotiations : Practical Communication Techniques, Strategems, and Strategies for Law Enforcement, Corrections, and Emergency Service Personnel in Managing Critical Incidents. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, Ltd.
- Dolnik, A., & Fitzgerald, K. M. (2008). Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group.
- Nichols, J. (2014). Negotiating in the 21st Century: Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Hostage Negotiation. Journal Of Applied Security Research, 9(1), 57-80. doi:10.1080/19361610.2014.851574
- Faure, G. O. (2003). Negotiating with Terrorists: The Hostage Case. International Negotiation, 8(3), 469-494.
- Brandt, P. T., & Sandler, T. (2009). Hostage taking: Understanding terrorism event dynamics. Journal Of Policy Modeling, 31(Understanding, quantifying and modeling the terrorist threat), 758-778. doi:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.07.003
- Wolf, Y., & Walters, J. (1996). Communication with Hostage Takers: Blame Schema as a Framework for Persuasion. Journal Of Contingencies & Crisis Management, 4(1), 39.
- Need to avoid engaging in verbal conflict.
- Need to actively listen, to avoid deadlines.
- Do not give anything away while appearing to make trade-offs.
- Understand that lies and deception are acceptable in such critical matters.
- Gain time and distract the captors from the hostages.
- Reassure hostage-takers that the site will not be assaulted.
- Minimize the seriousness of the crime, not to use the word “hostage”.
- Do not to suggest exchanging oneself for hostages.
- Don’t expose one’s self physically.
The majority of critical incidents to which law enforcement responds involve subjects who are motivated primarily by emotional needs, these incidents may involve:
- Mood-disordered or psycho- tic subjects, suicidal individuals, or individuals, who, for whatever reason, believe that they or their beliefs have been threatened or demeaned by society.
Modern Day Hostage Negotiations
The concept of hostage negotiation is shrouded in a wealth of misperception. Hostage incidents are as old as recorded time and the evolution of hostage negotiation as both a criminal and socially acceptable act.
Attributes of a hostage situation
The concept has evolved in meaning and substance since then.
The practice dates back to its practice in ancient Egypt, Persia, the Middle East, Greece and the Roman Empire.
- None of the hostages were injured.
- Some of Brown's followers were killed and one marine was killed.
- Brown was tried, convicted, and hanged.
Hostages can have:
- Different personalities;
- Children of famous people;
- Political figures;
- A group of unknown people such as airplane passengers including crew and pilot;
- Clients and staff of a bank;
- Train passengers;
- Children at school or in a school bus;
- Diplomats and guests in an embassy.
- As underlined by Faure (2002), a hostage-taking situation has very specific attributes:
- Dramatic stakes to manage: namely, human lives;
- Positions on both sides of an abyssal gap reflecting the extremely conflicting values of the parties;
- The impossibility of officially recognizing the hostage-taker as a legitimate Counterpart;
Accepting the idea of having a negotiation, and start to set up contact between the two parties with a land line to ensure the necessities such as food and water are provided by a third party.
Authorities act with discretion in the exchanges between the two for they need to keep the public in mind along with the families wants and expectations.
- Motivated by power, influence, fame, political recognition, political trade-offs -typical actions taken are their collective and planned nature.
- Collective and planned natured actions are easier to follow and predict.
- In a few cases, political militants are shown to be willing die if their demands are not met even if they are not suicidal to begin with (loyal).
- Free lance revolutionaries: those who seek political outcomes but are not backed by any criminal or terror organization.
Definition adopted by the European Union in 2001: hostage-taking falls into the category of terrorist offenses
- Includes activities such as extortion, seizure of aircraft, kidnapping for the purpose of seriously intimidating a population, and attempts to alter or destroy the political, economic, or social structure of a country.
- Trust as a mechanism that normally has no place in such a setting and cannot be established and implemented during the negotiation process;
- The safety of the negotiators themselves when they work within a hostile context; and,
- Third-party intervention from, for example, the media or the families of the hostages.
- These various elements make it extremely difficult to conceive of negotiation as a win-win game.
- Those who may be classified as psychopaths, paranoid-schizophrenics, maniacs, or suicidal persons.
- Defined as “insane”.
- Erratic behavior makes them an extremely difficult case to deal with.
- Usually the prolonged element of the negotiation process because of outrageous demands made by the hostage takers
- Outrageous demands lead to outrageous actions
- Threats and fait to accomplish are used to make the authority’s determination more credible to the counterpart and put more pressure on them
- Best way to put fear into a hostage is to use the fact of murder in both parties; either hostages or negotiators.
- Fear of being killed themselves by the constant thought of an assault team storming them at any given moment.
- The majority of the perpetrators fit the criminal or prison inmate typology (52%).
- The second largest typology of perpetrators were the political extremist/religious fanatic (21%) followed by the emotionally disturbed (18%).
- The majority of perpetrators were young (25% below age 30), white (61%), male (80%) and acted alone.
- Political militants;
- People suffering from psychological
problems;
- Bank robbers who are trying to
escape from the site of their crime.
The target may be:
- A government;
- A company;
- A wealthy individual;
- (Whoever is in possession of something a hostage taker wants).
- Often called a gangster, a felon, or an extortionist.
- Mainly motivated by money.
- Never wants to harm the hostage but use them as a route of escape.
- E.G1)Bank Robber who takes hostages to ensure a safe exit would fall under this prototype.
- E.G2) kidnapping for the purpose of receiving a ransom.
- Pre negotiation.
- Formula for agreement.
- Details.
- Most hostage takers (militant, psychology distressed person, or the criminal) will find themselves in a lose-lose game.
- Most often threats are made even if not implemented which makes this stage extremely antagonistic.
- Usually play a passive role and usually do not have any control of the situation at hand.
- They know that they are now a political or financial stake.
- Their fate is at the hands of the negotiation skills of the authorities and the discretion of the hostage taker.
- The word “hostage” came from the Latin word “hospes” that means “hospitality.
- First hostages - were most often prisoners who were exchanged for one another or for goods and services.
- Diplomatic hostages” were often members of royal families and were treated as people of distinction.
- Hostage-takers: the hostage takers are people who appropriate the lives of other people by violent means and intend to make use of these lives as a currency of exchange.