Hostage negotiators
have one of the most difficult jobs in the world,
cutting a deal with someone whom one doesn’t
know and with the strongest possibility with that
s/he is going to do whatever they say. Negotiators
deal with criminals who 95% of the time who know
what they are doing. Dealing with such people
one would have go through extensive training.
Negotiators are quick-witted people who know when
to say what and what to do when a situation arises.
Sometime back we had a Hostage situation. Three
men armed with automatic rifles and explosives
held the staff of my bank and 15 clients as hostage’s
in the main banking hall. As the assigned negotiator
I was in contact with the hostage captors via
my mobile phone, but unfortunately I was unable
to see them or the hostages.
The captors demanded 2 million dollars in cash
(An amount which was available in the bank vault),
safe passage and no police interference. They
threatened to kill the hostages if their demands
were not met.
To deal with the whole situation I used the techniques
that were taught to me, these techniques were
both useful and if applied at the right time can
achieve results that would be life saving, which
would bring the death toll down to a bear minimum.
Nevertheless it is the dream of every negotiator
to get all the hostages alive and well. The techniques
that I used were not certainly the best but they
were the ones that I was taught to put in to use.
I learned these techniques from various places.
One of them happened to be the Police Academy
where I had served them for almost a year as a
negotiator.
The techniques were simple and easy to follow.
One of the major techniques was to remain calm
at all times even if the worst was expected to
arise. Any hasty decision could prove to be disastrous
Rogan & Hammer (1995) discuss the four stage
model used by the Michigan State Police as:
1. Introduction and establishing contact,
2. relationship building,
3. problem negotiation, and
4. resolution
In the first step negotiators should try and
establish a contact in my case I had to find out
who they were what they wanted. They told me first
of all that they wanted to speak to no one but
me. From the voice I had deciphered that he was
not an American national but was from a Middle
Eastern country. He had a slight Arabic accent
to his voice; his voice was gruff and heavy and
meant every word. He told me that they wanted
the money that was in the vault and a safe passage
out of the country, and if the demands were not
met he would kill the hostages one by one and
it would all be my fault. This information that
I had got was very crucial as this gave us the
idea of whom we were dealing with. This further
told the police that the task would not be simple
and most probably they were on a do or die mission.
The second stage and the third stage go hand in
hand; if you build a good relationship then the
negotiation stage would become easier to conduct.
I had convinced them that the process would need
some time to accomplish and that they could be
rest assured that all the demands would be met.
The only condition that I had asserted here was
the safety of my people. The reason that this
is done is that if one doesn’t build that
relationship you only end up frustrating them
even more and in the advent of this one of the
hostages that you are trying to free could die.
In the third stage I had to make a negotiation
with the captors. This meant that I had to please
or meet some of their demands. The security of
the banks vault is that when the panic button
is pushed the bank vault automatically closes.
There are two codes that will open the bank vault;
one of them lies with the chief of the police
department and the other one lies with me. Also,
the codes are never written and have to me memorized
by me. I had decided to give the codes they could
take the money but as long as the captors were
in the bank the money was partly safe.
After analyzing the situation we came to the conclusion
that we would give the codes to open the bank
vault that would make them happy and an exchange
of prisoners could also be made. After having
agreed on that I made a call to the captors and
told them that the codes will be given if some
of the hostages were freed. The deal was made
and they assured me as soon as the vault was opened
they would free five hostages.
After a good fifteen minutes the bank doors were
opened and five of my bank people came out running.
They were scared, and praying to the good lord
that they were safe and sound.
I was happy that five of my people were safe
but the ordeal was far from over, I still had
ten more people who were stuck inside and the
possibility of seeing a happy ending to all this
was far from being true. However, the fact that
they had freed five people gave me signs of renewed
hope. The situation was very tense as the SWAT
teams were waiting for a chance to come up with
a plan. I phoned the police department to ask
him what I should do next. All that he could tell
me was to wait and see what new developments takes
place. After what seemed like an eternity, the
phone rang, the captors were calling, and they
had asked me if I had devised a plan for them
to get to the airport for their safe passage.
I told them that I was working on things for them
so that they and the hostages would be safe. However,
they told me to get a bus so that the money and
the hostages could go to the airport.
I managed to convince them that if I managed
to convince the Police about this they would have
to release some more hostages to show the Police
department that the captors meant their every
word good or bad. This had somehow managed to
convince them and said that they would release
five more people and the other five would be released
as soon as they are satisfied with the situation
of the plane at the airport.
The bus was bought in the driver was asked to
move out of the bus and an escort car would lead
them to the airport on roads that had been cleared
before hand so if any outward incident happened
they could handle the situation without anymore
civilians getting hurt. I had to go with the officer
in charge who would brief me on the plan that
was devised to apprehend the captors and how the
deal would be made.
The plan was that the remaining hostages were
to go in the plane and hopefully that they would
not have anyone who would know how to drive the
plane. The entire plane would be full of SWAT
team members and FBI people ready to take the
kidnappers dead or alive. The deal was that once
the hostages would be free the FBI and the SWAT
team would look after the rest. The Emergency
Rescue Team would be hiding in different places
of the plane.
Once we arrived at the airport, we then informed
the captors that the plane was ready and they
could enter the plane. They covered themselves
with one huge black cloth and the hostages and
the captors went below the camouflage of the black
cloth. Therefore, the possibility that the money
was being carried between them was much higher.
They then released two hostages and told me that
the others will be released as soon as the plane
was checked. My heart was beating at about 200
beats per minute, as I was scared that in case
the agents on board the plane were found they
would be a shootout and that could mean instant
death of my people. Something happened that later
I discovered that one of the men was spotted,
but due to some miraculous intervention my people
were saved. However, one of them was badly injured
and had to be admitted to the hospital where he
was pronounced out of the danger. In the event
one of the FBI had died in his attempt to save
one of the hostages, and I salute the officer
for putting his life on the line.
This was only made possible because of the relationship
that I had prior made with the captors. You have
to give them something for you to expect anything.
Till this point you can see that no hasty decisions
were made. I had been double checking with the
Police, keeping myself on track. A negotiator
should not act like a hero in which he would just
go ahead and conduct a rescue mission without
assessing what dangers lie ahead of him.
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