Hostage Negotiations and Crisis Intervention, Phase I and II

Instructor: Brandon Pierpoint

Duration: 4.5 Days

Professional Development Hours: 40 PD hours

Cost: From $675.00

Course Overview

This comprehensive 40-hour training program equips law enforcement professionals with essential skills in hostage negotiation and crisis intervention. The course schedule consists of four full days running from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM local time, with the final day concluding at 12:00 PM local time. Students will complete additional hours through examination components and evening assignments that reinforce the material covered.

Course Content

Introduction and Orientation: The training begins with instructor and participant introductions, a comprehensive curriculum overview, and historical context of negotiation practices. Materials and recommended readings are provided to students during this foundational lecture segment.

Required and Suggested Equipment: Participants learn about essential equipment needed for hostage and barricaded subject responses, including negotiation phones, response vehicles, ballistic protection, tactical identification gear, fiber optic cameras, listening devices, and department radio channels. This portion utilizes lecture and visual presentation formats.

Fundamentals of Hostage Negotiation: Students explore core theoretical concepts including types of response incidents, rationales for law enforcement negotiation strategies, the interplay between emotional and rational factors, incident management, profiles of hostage-takers and hostages, negotiator selection criteria, and time management principles. Multiple instructional methods including lectures, presentations, and video materials are employed.

Active Listening Techniques: This module develops critical listening abilities used during negotiations, emphasizing the importance of restating and paraphrasing information to confirm accurate comprehension and understanding of all parties involved.

Mental Health Considerations for Negotiators: Participants gain insight into psychological dimensions of crisis situations, including how to recognize irrational and inappropriate behavior, understand various personality disorders, and identify mental health conditions likely to be encountered during negotiations.

Practical Preparation: Students collaborate to develop "Bunches of 5" – brainstormed, pre-planned responses to anticipated concerns and demands that they can bring back to their agencies for implementation.

Suicide Prevention and Risk Assessment: The training addresses common emotional drivers of suicidal behavior, explores characteristics of major depressive disorder, and covers practical risk assessment methodologies.

Situation Management: Participants learn to establish and maintain situation boards for organizing critical information and intelligence during active incidents, emphasizing accurate documentation and information relay.

Negotiations Operations Command (NOC) Protocol: Students understand the structure and function of the NOC, including the roles of all team members and the critical importance of effective information sharing across the command structure.

Third Party Intermediaries: The course covers considerations for utilizing third party intermediaries and appropriate strategies for their integration into negotiation efforts.

Tactical Integration: This module examines how tactical teams work alongside negotiators and incident commanders, emphasizing necessary coordination and cooperation between these critical functions.

Managing Demands: Students learn strategies for addressing hostage-taker demands, including techniques for softening or reframing demands and managing established deadlines. The course identifies demands that are never negotiable in hostage situations.

Stress Management: The training explores stress effects on all parties involved in crisis situations, including the hostage-taker, hostages, and negotiators. Students develop stress management strategies and study the correlation between stress and performance using the Yerkes-Dodson Principle.

Student Assignments

Evening homework assignments enhance the learning experience and account for additional training hours. These assignments include review of relevant case law, analysis of current incidents, and scenario scripting. Daily discussions addressing case law and recent incidents, combined with practical scenario work throughout the week, provide hands-on application of course concepts.