Adalberto Saenz
7/27/2013
BU3110
Final Part 4 Hostage Negotiations
Hostage situations involve the taking of a person captive for Tangible reasons; the suspect needs the police or other authorities to meet specific demands (e.g., ransom, transportation, money). In these events, the captive is used as leverage to obtain other substantive goals.Law enforcement agencies have been employing negotiation strategies in their responses to hostage/barricade situations, kidnappings, personal crises, and other critical incidents since they were first introduced by the New York City Police Department in 1973.
Fewer than 20 percent of law enforcement critical incidents deal with actual hostage taking, and most crises are successfully resolved without loss of life. In fact, containment and negotiation strategies yield a 95 percent success rate in terms of resolving a hostage crisis without fatalities to either hostages or hostage-takers
There are three especially dangerous periods during a hostage crisis. The first is the initial 15-45 minutes when confusion and panic are likely to be greatest. The second is during the surrender of the Hostage / Takers, when strong emotions, ambivalence, and lack of coordination among “HT’s” and crisis team members can cause an otherwise successful resolution to go bad. Finally, tactical assault to rescue the hostages carries the highest casualty rate, probably for two interrelated reasons. First, the very fact that tactical intervention is necessary indicates that all reasonable attempts to resolve the crisis by negotiation have failed, and that violence against the hostages has already taken place, or is imminent. Second, if a firefight ensues, the resulting panic and confusion may result in hostages being inadvertently killed or injured.

The term used to describe these teams has broadened from hostage negotiation, to crisis