Hostage Negotiations Following the Deadly Aftermath/Fallout From

Hostage Negotiations

Following the deadly aftermath/fallout from the Attica prison riot in New York State in 1971 -- and from the bloody terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games in Germany -- there have been attempts to change the way in which authorities go about crisis negotiation. This paper discusses the responses that authorities have had to these crisis situations and outlines the steps that have been taken to improve the strategies that are needed when there is a crisis.

Attica -- what changes (if any) have been made in crisis negotiation?

Without going into great detail regarding the causes of the insurrection at Attica Prison in 1971, it should be noted that the living conditions for many inmates at Attica were deplorable. Attica was a place where 2,200 men were jammed into a facility that was built for 1,600, according to "the smart negotiator." In the end, after the riot, hostage-taking, and bloodshed, the attempt at negotiation is viewed as having been pathetically weak, as law enforcement (under orders from Governor Nelson Rockefeller) opened fire and killed 29 inmates; 10 guards were also killed.

Negotiations are about meeting "needs," the blog explains. Rockefeller had a "political need" to look tough so he refused to extend the deadline. The prisoners had needs in terms of wanting better living conditions. In the aftermath of that disaster, lessons were learned about crisis management, according to the blog at Wordpress (the smart negotiator). Negotiators must demonstrate "a genuine commitment to a deal that satisfies the needs of all parties," not just the authorities or those rebelling. The so-called negotiation process in 1971 went sour when "wants were confused with needs, and the needs of one party were privileged over all others"; that is, Rockefeller was planning to run for president, and he needed to be seen as tough, and he had the weapons and the authority so the needs of the inmates were shoved aside and negotiations failed.

In the Harvard Business Review senior editor Diane L. Coutu interviewed former NYPD detective and hostage negotiator Dominick Misino, who took part in negotiations in over 200 hostage situations and "…never losing a single life" (Coutu, 2002). Following the 1971 Attica riot the New York Police Department formed a hostage negotiation training program, which was at that time the first hostage / crisis negotiation training program in the United States, and was formed in part due to the poor response law enforcement and government showed during the Attica crisis. In 1973, a year after the Munich Olympics hostage crisis, the FBI started its own training program, which, Coutu writes, "…was modeled on the NYPD's" training program.

Misino says every negotiation situation (assuming the negotiator is talking with a hostage-taker) should begin with showing respect to the person holding a hostage or hostages. "I always ask him if he needs something," Misino explains, which shows sensitivity to the needs of the hostage taker. Keeping your feelings separate from your work is paramount, Misino continues. Another way of showing initial respect to the desperate person that has created a crisis situation is to "…ask the bad guy very early on in a negotiation if he wants you to tell him the truth" (Coutu, p. 2). "Do you want me to lie to you or tell you the truth?" Misino said he asks the "bad guy." Of course he will say he wants the truth, and the "critical thing you get by asking the other guy if he wants the truth is that he enters into an agreement with you right at the start," Misino told journalist Coutu (p. 2).

After all, Misino continued, successful crisis negotiation is really a "series of small agreements," so once the negotiator has achieved one agreement, the person in many cases realizes that the negotiator can be trusted. Misino has negotiated with the worst society can produce: murderers, hijackers, hostage-takers and child molesters, but he says once he has an agreement that the hostage taker wants the truth, and is told he "…might hear things he doesn't want to hear…he's got to agree not to hurt anybody" (Coutu, p. 2). More than 90% of the time, when a hostage taker gives Misino his promise, "…he has kept it." This is not to say that the Attica issue could have been peaceably resolved had the rioting prisoners agreed that they wanted the truth, but Misino's point is well made: negotiators must be smart, good listeners, and they have to establish some kind of connection with the desperate person -- and show concern.

Meanwhile, in the peer-reviewed journal Aggression and Violent Behavior, the authors report on negotiation strategies that have been developed following "…the debacle of the 1971 Attica, New York prison riot" and the killings at the 1972 Games in Munich (Vecchi, et al., 2005). The FBI came up with "The Behavioral Change Stairway Model" (BSCM). It has five stages, beginning with good listening skills. Stage 1 involves active listening: The active listening stage is "the bedrock" of crisis intervention, and there is a core group of concepts that accompany active listening: "mirroring" (restating what the subject said, which shows the negotiator is "attentive"; "paraphrasing" (restating in the negotiator's words); "emotional labeling" (saying "I hear your frustration"); and "summarizing" (restating the content and the emotion of what the subject has said) (Vecchi, 541).