I am 52 years old with over 31 years of criminal investigative experience and have 9 years to retirement. I am really not looking to learn a new skill set, but I was highly encouraged by my deputy chief of our agency to attend the FBI Crisis Negotiation Course. We have a Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU) but only one person has been through the FBI course and I was asked to be the second. The rest of the members have taken a local course.

I went into this thinking it would be pretty easy as I have been doing interviews and interrogations for over 30 years, teach it at our agency, and I have a high confession rate in interrogations. However, I quickly learned that crisis negotiation is completely different and you have to completely re-wire your brain for how you talk to someone who is holding a hostage, barricading themselves, wanting to commit suicide, or just in a crisis situation. At least I can say that in every scenario that I was the primary negotiator, I was able to get the hostages released. Not all were so successful as some got their hostages killed.

This course was very tough and intense with everyday getting harder. Today was the final exam and you had to do four different crisis situations being a different role on the team each time. For anyone in LE, this was not just sit through a PowerPoint. This was hands-on everyday and the FBI did an amazing job with role players making it so real life. You did not get a certificate of completion just for attending like most courses; you were graded and had to pass. This was probably one of my top challenging trainings, but also so beneficial and rewarding. This won’t be a week I forget as I learned a lot and made tons of friends from so many agencies. This is training that will be worthwhile just in everyday life.

Congratulations!

Nice! I’ve heard nothing but good about the class.

Bill R

Pretty intense stuff. Are you about to be slotted into a hostage negotiator assignment? One of the tougher courses I took was in the Reid Technique of Interview. Which nowadays has been criticized for eliciting false confessions.

Nicely done.

Congratulations! Sounds like it was a worthwhile experience.

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!

I work with with a guy who was an FBI agent in the 90's who had a finger in all the headline cases that were going on at the time. I could listen to his stories for hours! He saw how bad it was getting and bailed out and ran a construction company for 20+ years. It's funny now to watch him use his interrogation skills on our contractors at our job sites. He picks their claims apart until their is nothing left.

That’s impressive. I attended an FBI course long ago when it was just “hostage negotiation,” but it was not as difficult as what you described.

Very nice, congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Pretty intense stuff. Are you about to be slotted into a hostage negotiator assignment? One of the tougher courses I took was in the Reid Technique of Interview. Which nowadays has been criticized for eliciting false confessions.

I will be placed into an on-call position if needed for a hostage negotiation situation. I will now have to participate in our agency tabletop exercises and also the local annual hostage negotiation competition, which includes agencies from around the world.

I have been through almost every interview/interrogation course there is to include Reid and W-Z. I mostly utilize Reid and if used properly, will not elicit a false confession. Sadly, there are people so focused on getting a confession, that they lose sight of just obtaining the truth. It is good you actually went through the Reid class as many agencies, mine included, don’t have the budget to send everyone through it so they get trained by another investigator and it gets washed down. Also, people have to truly believe in the technique and follow it for it to work and there are so many that do not see or understand the science behind the technique so it gets abused.

Congratulations! Sounds like a great course.

Is this the school you were talking about in my Navy thread SN?

Job well done completing it. Always good to have more tools to work with.

Still 55 hours of cock block SWAT and liability reduction?

It is an excellent course.......I used the principles and concepts numerous times while talking down Command Staff, Wife, and teenagers.

I realized at several points in my life it was an on-going hostage negotiation and I was the hostage and the negotiator.

If you can, during those table top training sessions to make damn sure that Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, local CEOS (we included hospitals in some of our table top training) are in those AND understand they are NOT allowed to be near a reporter or news camera. They need to understand that if the hostage taker sees them on the news and at the scene, the hostage taker will demand to speak to them since they are "in" charge. I had to explain that to a couple hospital CEOs when in the scenario the news wanted a statement from the hospital and CEO said, "oh I can do that." I explained way they shouldn't do that unless they wanted to talk and negotiate with the hostage taker for the next 8-12 hours. I told the CEO send out an intern with a written statement and tell the news you will talk with them after the event is over.

Also, realize (I know this was probably discussed in the current training as my course was about 40 years ago): Sometimes you can't get everyone out safely and your only option is to put the hostage taker in the right position so they can be taken out.

Another excellent course to follow up and add to this one is the Secret Service Threat Assessment . They break down the different types of suspects and situations. Depending on your region it is a 3-5 days and is fantastic (at least both the ones I want to during my career were). This course is offered very seldom but well worth it. Check with your local Secret Service office and see it they offer it.

The only other piece of advice is work with your Swat teams if you don't have that training. It will give you an idea on how/when/where to position a suspect so SWAT can breach and assault or take them down via sniper. Some organizations like to divide up the SWAT team from the Negotiators but this usually runs into issues. Best teams and command structure always worked together. I always worked with the SWAT team and my goals were negotiate so everyone comes out safely, gather intell (for SWAT and Investigators), and position the suspect if needed.

You going to find that negotiating an incident is very similar to the old Verbal Judo skills you used when you were a lone patrol officer with back up several minutes away while you are talking with a 6'8" 300 lbs combative drunk.

Good luck and God Speed from a old retired cop!

Oustanding. Congratulations!

Very cool! Congratulations on completing the course and the certification. One thing about the FBI they can provide some outstanding training for law enforcement agencies.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Is this the school you were talking about in my Navy thread SN?

Job well done completing it. Always good to have more tools to work with.

Yes, that was the class I was talking about. Thanks, Otto. I would like to go to the 80 hour course in Quantico, but they only do it once a year and only allow four seats for non-FBI agencies and even if you get selected, the wait is a few years out.

Congratulations and thank you for what you do.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Still 55 hours of cock block SWAT and liability reduction?

I would hate to be in a super long standoff, but at least it gives SWAT time to plan and prepare for if they have to go in. They played some good audio from some high profile standoff negotiations along with surveillance or throw phone video.