NCJ Number
197783
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 71 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2002 Pages: 1-5
Date Published
November 2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
After discussing the selection of members of a crisis negotiation team (CNT), this article explains the assignment of responsibilities to team members and team training.
Abstract
The selection of a team leader is the first consideration in organizing and staffing a CNT. CNT leaders must be experienced, knowledgeable, and articulate supervisors or senior investigators. They should be well trained in current procedures for establishing and maintaining negotiations with a hostage-taker or barricaded subject, interfacing with a tactical team, and assessing the behavioral dynamics in an incident. CNT leaders must also understand how to devise a flexible negotiation strategy based on this assessment and effectively communicate this strategy to the incident commander and tactical team leader. CNT leaders optimally should be equal in rank to the tactical team leader to facilitate discussion of alternative courses of action and balance in reaching consensus on strategy recommendations. In selecting CNT team members, the best criminal investigators tend to be the best crisis negotiators. As with the CNT team leader, availability and time commitment are important considerations in selecting individual team members. In assigning responsibilities, more than one negotiator should work an incident. The FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit recommends that agencies use at least three negotiators in each incident, with one member acting as the primary negotiator, a second team member acting as the coach in choosing specific dialog and communication techniques, and the third member acting as the team leader to assist in formulating the overall negotiation strategy and interfaces with the other crisis response components as they arrive. Once an agency has selected a team and assigned responsibilities, the training program should address the most common types of incidents that the CNT is likely to encounter. Training content should reflect current proven professional knowledge in the field. The training should consist of basic skills training, advanced/specialized skills training, team leader skills training, and regular team and individual skills maintenance training. 12 notes