Crisis Negotiations: Crisis Negotiation Is a Procedure

¶ … Crisis Negotiations:

Crisis negotiation is a procedure used by law enforcement to communicate with individuals who are threatening violence. They include violence in the workplace, stalkers, barricaded subjects, individuals threatening suicide, and hostage takers. In the past several decades, the concept of crisis negotiations has been described as the most important development in police psychology and law enforcement. Actually, various law enforcement agencies have been using crisis negotiations techniques in response to kidnappings, critical incidents, hostage or barricade conditions, and personal crises. Based on recent trends, the use of crisis negotiations by law enforcement agencies have continued to grow since its inception in 1973. The main purpose of crisis negotiation is to develop rapport through establishing communication to gather intelligence regarding individuals' threat of violence.

Types of Situations that Require a Crisis Negotiator:

There are various types of situations that may require the use of crisis intervention procedures through a crisis negotiator. Some of these situations include:

Hostage Situations:

Generally, hostage situations are conditions that involve taking an individual captive for tangible reasons that are usually expressed in form of demands. Therefore, the captive is used as influence to acquire the suspect's substantive goals (Vecchi, Van Hasselt & Romano, 2005). A crisis negotiator may be required in such situations because hostage-takers and their victims experience substantial emotionality.

Non-hostage Situation:

This is the second type of situation that may require a crisis negotiator and involves taking a person captive for intangible purposes or expressive reasons. Unlike hostage situations, the non-hostage situations the person may not need police or other authorities since he/she is held by a hostage taker who is in a highly emotional state. An example of such situations is when a person holds a spouse captive because of an extramarital affair.

Kidnapping:

This is a form of hostage crisis situation that differs from a typical hostage condition where the hostage taker is barricaded in a recognized area. In these kinds of situations, the kidnappers usually keep their victims in a secret location with one-way communication (Grabianowski, n.d.). While there are fewer negotiations in kidnapping situations because of one-way communication, they may require a crisis negotiator.

Negotiation Techniques for these Situations:

For hostage situations, the most suitable negotiation tactics that can be used in crisis negotiations include securing the perimeter and making provisions for scene control because the victims are barricaded in a known area. However, for both the kidnapping and non-hostage situations the best negotiation tactics include building rapport for a peaceful resolution. One of the major similarities in negotiations for all these situations is that they all require the Behavior Change Stairway Model to find a resolution.

Indicators of Negotiation Progress:

During the crisis negotiation processes, there are various signs that a negotiator can use to determine the progress of the process. Some of the most common positive signs of negotiation progress include positive changes in the content and quality of communication, increased identification or sympathy for victims, and decreased threats against hostages (Miller, 2005). However, the negative signs that shows that negotiation are not proceeding or are becoming volatile include refusal to talk and lack of rapport between the negotiator and the offender.