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Hostage Negotiation
By El Cartel
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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