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Amy Grubb Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology Supervisors: Prof. Sarah Brown, Dr Peter Hall and Prof. Barry Mitchell Coventry University

What do we know about hostage/crisis negotiation?

Plethora of literature relating to HN as an entity and tool utilised by the police to resolve H/C incidents.

Most literature focuses on models of HCN and strategies/styles/ techniques used to de-escalate H/C situations.

Numerous models of HCN in existence:

The S.A.F.E. Model (Hammer, 1997; 2007)

The S.T.E.P.S. Model (Kellin & McMurtry, 2007)

The BCSM/BISM Model (FBI CNU, 2005; Vecchi, 2007)

The Cylindrical Model (Taylor, 2002) (UK)

Literature is very US-centric (apart from Taylor’s).

What don’t we know about hostage (crisis) negotiation?

Gaps in the literature...

Dearth of published literature relating to the actual experiences of operationally active HCNs.

Lack of literature relating to the nature and extent of HCN in UK.

Limited literature relating to models of communication style/techniques utilised by HCNs in UK.

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Research Questions

What is it like to be a HCN in the UK?

What type of experiences do HNCs have and how does this impact on their identity?

What does the concept of hostage (crisis) negotiation look like in the UK?

Aims & Objectives

Aim = To provide an insight into the experiences of HCNs in the UK.

Objective = To develop an experientially grounded theoretical model of HCN in the UK.

I.e. to provide a snapshot of HCN in the UK (“A day in the life of a HCN”!).

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Design Qualitative research design

Sample & Recruitment of Participants 15 HCNs selected from wider pool of HCNs (N = 117; 22 forces) who took part in earlier quantitative phase of research.

Theoretical sampling (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) used to select Ps ranging in force location, gender, rank, and level of experience.

Participants 15 HCNs from 9 UK forces (Met/Rural)

10 male / 5 female HCNs

Age range: 41 – 54 years

Variety of ranks/role: Sergeant – Superintendent; Uniform/CID

Varied length of experience (2 – 16 yrs; 8 – 200 incidents)

Mixed level of HCN qualification (Level 1/2 trained, Red Centre trained etc). 4

Procedure Ethical approval & gatekeeper permission from Lead Force Negotiator Coordinator/ACC.

15 Semi-structured interviews (60 – 150 minutes in length).

Interviews audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Data Analysis Grounded theory approach.

Transcripts read/re-read.

Open, axial & selective coding performed (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Data given meaning by identifying concepts; concepts refined into primary, secondary and tertiary categories.

Categories interacted to form a model used to depict an experientially grounded theory of HCN in the UK.

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Findings could be clearly differentiated into three primary categories:

Negotiation Positives

Negotiation Negatives

Negotiation Ambivalences

Each primary category was subdivided into 2 or 3 secondary categories and then further subdivided into 3 or 4 tertiary categories.

A conceptual map of the categories has been developed to visually depict the experientially grounded theory.

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1. Negotiation as Challenging Provided HCNs with a challenge that they enjoyed/found professionally rewarding.

Process described as “a constant battle of wits” (G:M:4:123).

“…the challenge I actually enjoy is… finding that thing that you can both talk about” (F:M:4:111).

2. Negotiation as Emotionally Rewarding Evoked positive emotions when negotiation was successful.

“You get, well for me, you get a fantastic buzz from it, it’s so unique, that there’s nothing that can compare to it, nothing in the police service” (L:M:7:54).

“Massive high” (A:M:1:156); “Adrenalin rush” (J:F:110); “Elation” (O:F:9:36) when incident resolved.

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3. Feeling Good from Helping Others Well established in the counselling/volunteering literature; Akin to the “helpers high” (Luks, 1988); “Selfish Altruism”.

“Um, at the end of any period of time, whether it’s 20 minutes, 10 minutes or hours and hours, ah, I always get a tremendous sense of achievement that the job… that I’ve really made a difference to that person at that moment in time” (B:M:2:195).

4. Opportunity for Public Interface and Interaction For those with less public interaction (promotion to managerial positions/roles with less operational policing).

An opportunity to be “down the coalface” (A:M:1:156).

“I don’t get to those jobs [people in different crises]. So I don’t get to practise those skills in a day-to-day environment because the rank and the role change means that it’s… unless I fall across it, it’s probably not appropriate… So what it personally gives me is the reminder of how to speak to people, how not to speak to people and just that snapshot into what is reality for their life” (I:M:6:84).

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1. Operational Rank/Role Conflict Dual roles/conflict between HCNs & commanders HCNs may often turn up to an incident being commanded by someone of a lower rank – expectation for HCN to take over!

“Negotiators negotiate and commanders command” (A:M:1:156).

“…as soon as I rock up, someone says, thank God you’re here boss and what do I do? Well hold on, I’m not the ground commander. I’m the negotiator, I work for you in these circumstances… And there is always, and I guess that’s something to do with the fact that we only negotiate at rank. Um, and there is always, kind of, that tension” (G:M:4:123).

2. Lack of Operational Discipline Lack of discipline/appropriate colleague behaviour; lack of adequate scene control.

“Um, sometimes it’s, um, not being able to isolate the person, so, um, they may be getting, um, phone calls from other people, um, they may be, um, getting interference from crowd that can’t be pushed back, it may be that they pick up on stuff from, um, police officers on the cordon who maybe aren’t as, um, careful as they should be about what they say or do” (K:M:2:111).

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3. Competing Tactical Orientations Resultant conflict between “play it long negotiators” and tactically minded commanders keen to resolve situation quickly.

Negotiators are trained to “play the long game” (F:M:4:111).

“Um. Ah, this is quite an interesting one in that sometimes there will be increasing pressure for the negotiators to be used and then withdrawn, because commanders want to get the situation resolved quickly” (A:M:1:156).

4. Negotiating Solo Training dictates that HCNs should never negotiate alone – but logistics/practicalities result in HCNs negotiating solo (at least at the beginning of some deployments).

“Because I have been on my own quite a bit, and you, it’s, it is, that immense, you’re thinking everything is on me” (H:F:5:50).

“I think the thing with the early ones was, at the time, we had a deployment model where we would normally send, er, two negotiators. Quite often, you’d be there on your own for quite some time before another one turned up. There was quite a lot of, um, pressure on you initially…” (K:M:2:111).

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1. Negotiation as Non-Stressful Despite the perceived nature of high pressure roles as stressful, some HCNs (n = 5) did not experience stress; potential result of macho police culture?

IV: “…do you ever kind of experience stress or anxiety as a result of actually negotiating?”

IE: “I haven’t so far” (M:F:8:24).

“Um, I don’t feel any stress when I’m negotiating, I really don’t” (I:M:6:84).

2. Negotiator Eustress Other HCNs conceptualised stress as positive stress (i.e. eustress – stress which is interpreted by the perceiver as beneficial).

Reframed as a challenge or a combination of positive & negative stress.

“No, it’s a challenge. It’s not a stress” (C:F:2:96).

“What I would say to that is, yes, I do. So you’re putting yourself on offer. But equally there’s an argument to say that in the vast majority of situations when the matter’s resolved, you’re getting a lot of positive stress, so it’s like a blooming cup. You know, you’ll get, you’ve got a load of negative here, but the potential is it’s actually all going to be smiles” (A:M:1:156).

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3. Negotiation as a “Different Type of Stress”

Some felt it was less intense than stress experienced in their day job.

“…somewhat perversely, I think although negotiating is always a crisis, um, I don’t find that it stresses me out really as much as the frustrations of any day-to-day issues that you might come across” (B:M:2:195).

Some felt it was more intense than stress experienced in their day job.

“Oh, goodness me, poles apart, absolutely poles apart… my everyday life at work, is busy. It’s not at all stressful, not in comparison with some of the bits I do… I’ve been in far more stressful situations, with people throwing knives at me, and bottles at me, while I’m trying to talk them out of a, a, situation…” (G:M:4:123).

Others felt it was different but equal in terms of intensity.

“I don’t think one is greater than the other, I think it’s just a really different dynamic” (L:M:7:54).

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First attempt to develop a UK-centric model of HNC based on negotiator experiences.

Provides us with an insight into the “HCN world” and the negotiator role.

Findings provide a platform to identify +ve/-ve aspects about the discipline and identify potential implications for police practice and policy.

Findings will be disseminated to all HCN cadres via the NNG.

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Positives Negotiation can be incredibly positive experience and the discipline is both personally and professionally rewarding:

Core reason for coming to work!

Rewards as unique to negotiation (i.e. not experienced in any other area of business).

Justification for more HCNs/greater utilisation of HCNs?

Negatives There is scope for improvement within the discipline to enhance practice and improve negotiator experiences:

Try to more clearly differentiate the roles of negotiator/commander via educating/training staff on the negotiator role and remit.

Ensure negotiators are always deployed in pairs and try to avoid negotiators having to negotiate alone.

Ambivalences Work with negotiators in terms of identifying whether stress is an issue and whether resiliency training/bespoke coping skills training would be beneficial.

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Limitations Difficulties generalising qual data to entire population (N = 15 from total N = ~800)

Potential skew from A19 regulation HCNs

Future Directions Replication of research with US-based negotiators is underway

N = 10 HCNs from Lubbock, Texas

Identical methodology/SSI

Comparative QA to produce an experientially grounded Anglo-American model of HCN.

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Or email me at: amy.grubb@coventry.ac.uk

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Grubb, A. (2010). Modern day hostage (crisis) negotiation: the evolution of an art form within the policing arena. Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 15(5), 341-348. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2010.06.002

Hammer, M.R. (1997, 2007). Saving lives: The S.A.F.E. model for resolving hostage and crisis incidents. Westport, CT: Praeger Publications.

Kellin, B., & McMurtry, C. (2007). STEPS-Structured Tactical Engagement Process: A model for crisis negotiation. Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations, 7(2), 29-51. doi:10.1300/J173v07n02_03

Luks, A. (1988). Helper's high: Volunteering makes people feel good, physically and emotionally. Psychology Today, 22(10), 34-42.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Taylor, P. (2002). A cylindrical model of communication behaviour in crisis negotiations. Human Communication Research, 28(1), 7-48. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2002.tb00797.x

Vecchi, G., Van Hasselt, V., & Romano, S. (2005) Crisis (hostage) negotiation: current strategies and issues in high-risk conflict resolution. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10, 533-551. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2004.10.001

Vecchi, G. (2007). Crisis communication: Skills building in an online environment. Cited in Van Hasselt, V., Romano, S. & Vecchi, G. (2008) Role playing: Applications in hostage and crisis negotiation skills training. Behavior Modification, 32(2), 248−263. doi:10.1177/0145445507308281. 19