“The More You Do, the More Comfortable You Feel”: the Police Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Journey

Hostage and crisis negotiators are specialist police officers utilised internationally by police forces to resolve hostage and crisis incidents. Whilst the role has been heavily documented in some parts of the world (namely the United States of America), there is a lack of literature relating to the organisational and operational processes and procedures in place for police negotiators in the United Kingdom. Equally, there is limited research that has explored the experiences of negotiators who perform an essential function within a variety of life-or-death situations with a view to understanding how officers transition from trainee to qualified negotiators. This paper outlines the development of a grounded theoretical model that depicts the “hostage and crisis negotiator journey,” as represented by English negotiators. Interviews were conducted with 15 negotiators from nine police forces in England and a conceptual model was developed including five primary, 12 secondary, and 32 tertiary categories. The negotiator journey is chronologically recounted by means of the five main primary categories identified: (1) ‘Why? Reasons for entering (and remaining within) the negotiator world’, (2) ‘Who and how? The negotiator profile and selection’, (3) ‘Negotiator training’, (4) ‘Operational negotiator roles’, and (5) ‘Negotiator welfare and support’. This paper demonstrates one of the first attempts to empirically map the processes and procedures in place for negotiators in England and the findings are discussed in line with their potential implications for police policy and practice.

“There’s nothing that compares to it”: a grounded theoretical analysis of the experiences of police hostage and crisis negotiators

Purpose Hostage and crisis negotiators serve a vital function within society by resolving hostage/crisis incidents. This role, performed by specially trained police “volunteers”, helps to prevent numerous fatalities and forms an important part of the modern policing repertoire. There is limited research that identifies the experiences of police officers that dedicate their lives to saving others by volunteering in this capacity. This paper aims to provide an insight into this fundamental police role using negotiator’s personal narratives. Design/methodology/approach This study consisted of an exploratory qualitative grounded theoretical analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 negotiators from nine English police forces. Findings The analysis revealed 3 primary, 7 secondary and 23 tertiary categories that form a conceptual model of the negotiator experience. The three primary categories consisted of “negotiator positives”, “negotiator negatives” and “negotiator ambivalences”, which provide an insight into the experiences and identities of negotiators in England. Practical implications The findings identify several positive factors that could be used to market the role more effectively within police forces and enhance future recruitment processes. Equally, the findings highlight several operational and organisational issues that have a negative impact on the negotiator experience. The findings are, therefore, discussed in light of the practical implications for negotiator training/continuing professional development, policy and practice. Originality/value This paper depicts the findings from one of the first qualitative analyses of negotiator experiences and provides a unique insight into the negotiator role from an Anglo-centric perspective.

Overcoming Suicidal Persons’ Resistance Using Productive Communicative Challenges during Police Crisis Negotiations

This paper reveals how negotiators, from the police and emergency call centres, overcome resistance towards the negotiation from suicidal persons in crisis. Communication guidance to hostage and crisis negotiators recommends against challenging the person in crisis, focusing instead on a softer, rapportful approach. Using conversation analysis, we investigate how negotiators deal with resistance, turn by turn, in encounters collected from British police negotiators’ field recordings, and American police 9-1-1 dispatch telephone calls. In contrast to existing communication guidance, we show that and how challenges can be productive for bringing about positive shifts in suicidal persons’ behaviour. We demonstrate how negotiators challenge the reasoning in their interlocutors’ resistant responses and leverage these challenges productively in the next turn. By studying real (rather than hypothetical or simulated) negotiations, the study reveals the tacit expertise of negotiators and the communicative practices that optimize negotiation outcomes. These research findings have significant implications for existing communication guidance showing how negotiations are managed locally through the linguistic design of turns of talk.

US SWAT operator experience, personality, cognitive-emotion regulation and decision-making style

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine SWAT operator deployment experience, personality, cognitive-emotion regulation, and decision making to see if there were correlations with successful SWAT callout resolution. These findings would then be compared with the results of a national survey of hostage (crisis) negotiators in the hopes of finding information that might be helpful with team dynamics, officer selection for these teams, and with operational dynamics and successful resolution of SWAT callouts. Design/methodology/approach Active SWAT officers (n=277) from various law enforcement entities in 21 states participated in this survey research. They completed a demographic questionnaire, questions about their callout experiences and experiences on their SWAT team, the Big 5 Personality Inventory, the Cognitive-Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the General Decision-Making Style questionnaire. These results were then compared with the same results obtained from a national survey of hostage (crisis) negotiators (n=514) and patrol officers (n=72). Findings Common personality and decision-making styles emerged from the SWAT survey, and correlations between these variables and the successful resolution of SWAT callouts are discussed. These results were then compared with negotiators and patrol officers via an ANOVA. Distinct differences between these groups emerged. Research limitations/implications Recruiting research participants from law enforcement, much less from a closed group such as SWAT operators, is difficult. The response rate for this study was low, and was due in part to the agency themselves declining to participate. The current study relied on honest self-report, which is always a limitation of this type of survey research. Another limitation was that lack of statistically significant findings for the multivariate and the binomial logistic regression analysis. No extrapolation of the relationship between personality, cognitive-emotion regulation, and decision-making styles and the outcome and resolution of callouts is possible based on these findings. Practical implications This research could have direct effect on the training and selection of SWAT team officers and hostage negotiators. There is also information provided that may impact the operation and coordination of these groups as they work together during callouts in the community. Social implications The current social climate in the USA seems to be calling for police departments to do everything possible to resolve high risk and dangerous situations with as much care and as little force as possible. In order to achieve successful and peaceful resolution of these SWAT callout situations, departments must deploy officers with the necessary skills, personality, and decision-making abilities. Originality/value There is very little general research on SWAT teams, and almost nothing on SWAT operator experience, personality, or decision making. These findings have value and application in SWAT operator selection and training, along with SWAT and negotiator dynamics and decision making when trying to successfully and peacefully resolve a SWAT callout operation.