Hostage Negotiations and Crisis Intervention, Phase I and II

Instructor: Brandon Pierpoint

Duration: 4.5 Days

Professional Development Hours: 40 PD hours

Cost: $675.00

Course Overview

This comprehensive 40-hour training program is structured with the first four days running from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM local time, followed by a final day from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM local time. The remaining hours include tested components of the curriculum. Students will complete evening homework assignments including case law review, analysis of current incidents, and scenario scripting to fulfill the full hour requirements.

Course Content

Introduction and Orientation: The course begins with instructor and student introductions, followed by a comprehensive overview of the curriculum, historical context of hostage negotiations, course materials, and recommended readings presented in lecture format.

Required and Suggested Equipment: This segment educates students on essential equipment needed for hostage and barricaded subject responses, including hostage phones, response vehicles, ballistic protection, identification gear, fiber optic surveillance equipment, listening devices, and tactical radio channels. Content is delivered through lecture and PowerPoint presentations.

Fundamentals of Hostage Negotiation: Students explore theoretical foundations including types of response incidents, rationales for law enforcement negotiation, the relationship between emotion and rationality, incident management, profiles of hostage-takers and hostages, negotiator selection criteria, and time management strategies. This section uses lecture, PowerPoint, and video instruction.

Active Listening: Participants develop proficiency in listening techniques specific to crisis situations, learning to restate and paraphrase information to confirm understanding. Instruction combines lecture, PowerPoint, and video formats.

Mental Health for Negotiators: This segment addresses psychological dimensions of crisis negotiation, examining irrational behavior, personality disorders, and mental health conditions negotiators commonly encounter. Content is presented through lecture, PowerPoint, and video materials.

Bunches of 5: Students engage in collaborative brainstorming to develop preplanned responses for anticipated concerns and demands, creating materials to take back to their agencies.

Suicide Intervention: The course covers emotional drivers of suicidal individuals, characteristics of major depressive disorder, and suicide risk assessment methodologies.

Situation Boards: Students learn information management and intelligence organization during active incidents, emphasizing accurate data transcription and presentation. Instruction uses lecture, PowerPoint, and video formats.

NOC Protocol: This section assists students in establishing a Negotiations Operations Command, detailing team member functions and the critical importance of information sharing. Content is delivered through lecture, PowerPoint, and video instruction.

Third Party Intermediaries: Participants learn considerations for utilizing third party intermediaries and proper implementation strategies. Lecture, PowerPoint, and video formats are employed.

Tactical Role of the Negotiator: Students examine the integration of tactical teams with negotiators and incident commanders, emphasizing interagency cooperation in hostage situation response. Instruction combines lecture, PowerPoint, and video materials.

Managing Demands: This block examines strategies for handling hostage-taker demands, identifies non-negotiable demands in any hostage situation, and presents tactics for softening or reframing demands. Students also learn techniques for managing hostage-taker deadlines. Content is presented through lecture, PowerPoint, and video formats.

Stress Management: Students develop understanding of stress effects on hostage-takers, hostages, and negotiators, exploring the Yerkes-Dodson Principle and its correlation to performance. The course emphasizes strategies for appropriate stress management. Instruction uses lecture, PowerPoint, and video formats.

Learning Activities

Throughout the week, students participate in practical scenario-based exercises and engage in daily discussions regarding case law and current incident analysis. Evening homework assignments reinforce learning objectives and contribute to the complete 40-hour course requirement.