Kidnapping: Handling of Hostage Situation & Negotiation Skills

Hostage negotiation is all about psychology, and successful crisis negotiators are among the most skilled practical psychologists I’ve ever met. Think about it – in the typical hostage scenario, lives are at imminent risk of violent death at the hands of a depressed, suicidal, homicidal, delusional, drug fueled, or cold-blooded hostage-taker, often in the midst of a chaotic and uncontrolled workplace or family environment. Resolution of hostage crises may take hours or even days of incredibly focused and intense negotiation, and require the use of virtually every type of skilled communication strategy in the crisis intervention skill box.

Although hostage situations can vary greatly based on the motivations of the hostage-taker and the exact circumstances surrounding the incident, there are some basic facts that apply to all hostage situations. The hostage-taker wants to obtain something as ransom. This can be as simple as money, personal safety or safe passage to another country, or it can involve complicated political goals. The target of the hostage-taker is not the hostage itself, it is some third party (a person, a company or a government) that can provide whatever the hostage-taker wants. The hostages are bargaining chips. They may have symbolic value (e.g., 1972 Munich Olympics, in which the target was the Israeli government and the hostages were Israeli athletes), but the hostages themselves could be anyone.

Whether it is a barricaded crisis situation or negotiations with a bad actor holding hostages, the keys to success are the skills of the negotiator or intervener to effectively communicate. Little else matters if communications is not established, maintained and utilized in such a way that management of the instant situation becomes possible. Most negotiators think that they are effective communicators. Some are, many are not. Communications must be practiced over and over again to assure proficiency. This article provides the rudiments of the skills needed for success in the field.

Hostage Crises: The statistics – The facts & fiction

Fewer than 20 percent of law enforcement critical incidents deal with actual hostage taking, and most crises are successfully resolved without the 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 (HTs), which is a remarkable statistic for any form of lifesaving crisis intervention strategy. 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 HTs, when strong emotions, ambivalence, and lack of coordination among HTs 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.

Phases through which Hostage situations moves

1. Initial phase: This phase is violent and brief and lasts as long as it takes for the hostage-takers to make their assault and subdue the hostages. The end of this phase is often marked by the presentation of the hostage-taker’s demands.
2. Negotiation phase: At this point, law-enforcement officials are on the scene, and the demands have probably been received. This phase can last hours, days or months and could also be referred to as ‘the standoff phase.’ Physically, nothing about the situation changes greatly. The hostages and the hostage-takers stay in the same place. However, a lot is happening during this phase in terms of the relationships developing between everyone involved. The negotiator’s job boils down to manipulating those relationships in a way that results in a peaceful ending.
3. Termination phase: This is the brief, sometimes violent final phase. This phase has one of three results – the hostage-takers surrender peacefully and are arrested, police assault the hostage-takers and kill or arrest them, or the hostage-takers’ demands are granted and they escape. The fate of the hostages does not necessarily depend on what happens during the termination phase. Even when the hostage-takers give up, they may kill hostages during the negotiations. Often, hostages are killed either accidentally by police or intentionally by their captors during an assault. There have even been cases in which the hostage-takers were granted their demands, but they killed the hostage anyway.
4. Post-incident stage: In this the effects of the incident play themselves out. These effects can include changes in the status of the groups responsible, shifts in the relationships between world governments or increases in security.

Negotiation & Communication Skills in Hostage Situation

The research unveils which skills, behaviors, and qualities experienced crisis (hostage) negotiators believe enhance or harm their success during negotiation. Amongst them – active listening, displays of empathy, effective communication, and remaining calm and collected appear at the top of their to-do lists. Conversely, being confrontational, arguing, yelling, and interrupting were reported as behaviors to be avoided. Most negotiators attend trainings multiple times a year and read on the topic of crisis negotiation.

Strategy to prepare for incident of hostage

With the right motivation, mindset, and training we can eliminate a commonly-found defeatist attitude among corporate security professionals. Sure, it can be argued that in certain facilities, if certain events were to occur, we could find ourselves in a hostage situation nearly impossible to control. However, this is not always the case. The inmates don’t always out number us 20 to one, and the hostage taker is not always 6’6” and 280 pounds. So we need to prepare for incidents that can be won so they will be won.

The Winning Mindset

Winning comes in many forms. To develop a winning mindset you do not always have to overpower the inmate. Good tactics and trickery can go a long way to give your team the time and opportunity to take back control of the situation. For instance:

1. Escalating to a high level of force rapidly and then getting out.
2. Fighting hard enough and long enough for help to arrive.
3. Finding and using defensive weapons of opportunity.
4. Taking advantage of any unexpected opening they make.
5. There are countless other ideas.

Put simply, if you have a defeatist attitude and fail to look for options and alternatives, you simply will never find them. Size and strength are valuable assets to have when protecting yourself, but they are not the only ones, or even most important. A peep into a training room and the real world will show what a small person can do with the right motivation, mindset, and training.

What we in corporate need to do

In corporate, we spend time teaching our corporate security how to prevent hostage situations from developing and we spend time teaching what to do if a CEO/ CMD is taken hostage. However, we need to start focusing on the gap between the start of the hostage situation and the time the inmate(s) has/ have control. In other words, we need to practice transitioning – both physically and mentally – out of an assertive mode and into an aggressive mode. Here are some guidelines to help get you there:-

1. Remain alert and stay vigilant for possible threats, danger or security hazards.
2. Follow your facility’s security policy and procedures.
3. Know your facility’s emergency policies and procedures in advance.
4. Be decisive and act quickly.
5. Have a preplanned, practiced response. The key to counter the crisis lies here.

Conclusion

When dealing with hostage response issues one often comes across the question, “Why spend time and effort on an incident that one will probably never face?” My question back is, “Why do you pay for fire insurance when your house will probably never catch on fire?” Hence we always train and prepare for an eventuality for which timeline cannot be forecast. It’s the degree of preparedness which is de-facto the savior in hostage crisis.