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The FBI's Critical Incident Negotiation Team

The FBI'S Critical Incident Negotiation Team

April 1995

The FBI'S Critical Incident Negotiation Team

By JAMES M. BOTTING, M.S., FREDERICK J. LANCELEY,
M.S., GARY W. NOESNER, M.Ed.

-Special Agent Botting is assigned to the FBI's Los Angeles Division.
-Mr. Lanceley, a retired FBI special agent, formerly worked in the
Crisis Management Unit.
-Special Agent Noesner is assigned to the Crisis Management Unit
of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group.

In the early 1980s, the country witnessed a rise in the number of
long-term hostage and barricade incidents. For example, members
of the Aryan Nation created a barricade situation on Whidbey
Island, Washington, in December 1984. Earlier, a small, right-wing
survivalist group known as the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of
the Lord was involved in a similar incident in Arkansas. FBI
hostage negotiators successfully resolved these situations and
others like them, but the incidents challenged the crisis negotiation
capacity of the FBI and pointed to the need for a special response
mechanism.

As a result, the Crisis Management Unit (CMU)1 at the FBI
Academy developed a new approach. In 1985, the CMU formed the
Critical Incident Negotiation Team (CINT), a small, highly trained
and mobile group of experienced FBI crisis negotiators. This team
became the nucleus of an organized response to complex and
potentially lengthy hostage and barricade incidents nationwide.

The FBI typically negotiates approximately 45 bank robbery and
hijacking hostage incidents annually. The wealth of knowledge
developed from these experiences, coupled with lessons learned
from other law enforcement agencies, prepare CINT members to
handle high-risk incidents. In addition to handling situations
arising under FBI jurisdiction, the CINT provides around-the-clock
consultation to State and local law enforcement agencies.



Selection of Team Members

The original CINT members were drawn from a pool of more than
350 FBI negotiators nationwide based on resume reviews, personal
interviews, psychological testing, and negotiation experience. This
group of 25 negotiators was multiracial and multilingual, with one
member being fluent in five languages. Most had been hostage
negotiators for 10-15 years and had extensive operational,
investigative, and training experience. Their diverse investigative
experience included foreign counterintelligence, counterterrorism,
organized crime, and general criminal investigation.



Training

Because most of those selected for CINT had been police
instructors in the field, they possessed an excellent working
knowledge of negotiation strategies, hostage and barricade
techniques, and crisis management principles, in addition to actual
negotiation experience. Nevertheless, CMU arranged and
coordinated semiannual training seminars conducted either at the
FBI Academy or at other field locations that could accommodate
the team's special instructional needs. For example, the team
conducted joint training with the Department of Energy's Nuclear
Emergency Search Team (NEST) and participated in numerous
long-term national training exercises conducted in Albuquerque,
New Mexico; Camp Pendleton, California; and Indianapolis,
Indiana. Criminal profilers and mental health professionals
experienced in personality assessment also provided instruction for
the team.



Preparation for Negotiations Overseas

The International Hostage Taking Act of 1984 tasked the FBI with
deploying agents overseas to conduct hijacking and kidnaping
investigations. This responsibility requires CINT members to
interact regularly with Department of State personnel and to receive
overseas operations training. Training in this area focuses on
developing meaningful threat assessments, devising strategies for
responding to ransom demands, and coordinating the efforts of the
U.S. Embassy staff, host country police, and intelligence agencies,
as well as employers and families of the victims.

Team members familiarize themselves with diplomatic procedures,
receive numerous inoculations for protection against disease, study
cultural variables, review overseas jurisdiction, and generally
prepare for rapid deployment abroad. CINT members also attend a
2-week negotiation course offered by the Metropolitan Police
Department in London, England, for supplementary training.

In addition to general training, CINT also has focused on preparing
for specific threats. Immediately prior to the Gulf War in 1991, a
special session was held at the FBI Academy to prepare CINT
negotiators to deal with the potential threats posed by international
terrorists. The team reviewed past terrorist incidents in the Middle
East and examined the impact that culture, history, politics, and
religion had on violence in the region.

Today, training for CINT members continues on a regular basis to
address pertinent and current challenges and to maintain the team's
state-of-the-art readiness. Refresher training focuses on such areas
as nuclear, chemical, and biological extortion; cult ideology;
international terrorism; abnormal psychology; and crisis/suicide
intervention.



Deployment

The FBI deploys CINT negotiators for one of two reasons. First,
when the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team responds to a hostage or
barricade incident, a negotiation program manager from the CMU
accompanies the team's advance group. Upon arrival at the scene,
the program manager confers with local field office negotiators to
assess the situation, the need for language or other specialty skills,
the projected time span of the situation, the availability of local
FBI field office negotiators, and the number of additional
negotiators who may be needed. The program manager then
contacts appropriate CINT members and instructs them to report to
the scene, if warranted.

Since 1985, CINT members have negotiated domestic incidents
such as the Cuban prisoner uprisings in Oakdale, Louisiana;
Atlanta, Georgia; and Talladega, Alabama, as well as standoffs with
religious zealots in Marion, Utah; Ruby Creek, Idaho; and Waco,
Texas. Other situations where the team provided assistance include
the Lucasville, Ohio, prison riot and a week-long barricaded siege
in Missoula, Montana.

CINT negotiators also respond to situations in other countries at
the request of a U.S. Ambassador, usually to assist in negotiating
the release of Americans held hostage or kidnaped by terrorists or
other criminal groups. In these international incidents, the CMU
dispatches selected negotiators either to the country where the
hostages are being held or to an adjacent country more receptive to
the presence of Americans. CINT members deployed overseas
generally respond in teams of two.

Since 1985, CINT negotiators have assisted in the release of
American hostages held in Ecuador, Chile, El Salvador, Bolivia,
Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Zaire, Cambodia, and
the Philippines. These delicate international incidents require team
members to work closely with U.S. Embassy personnel, the families
and employers of the victims, and the law enforcement agencies of
the host countries. As a result of the team's successful record,
requests for as-sistance continue to increase. To date, team
members have been deployed overseas 22 times.



International Assistance

Recently, the team acquired an additional mission_international
police training and consulting. As a result, CINT negotiators have
met with police forces around the globe to provide training in crisis
management as it pertains to kidnaping and hostage incidents.


Case Study

On October 25, 1993, deputy sheriffs in Missoula, Montana,
attempted to arrest a subject on an assault warrant. The subject
fired a rifle shot that shattered the windshield of the deputy's
cruiser and slightly wounded the officer. The subject subsequently
barricaded himself inside his home with his wife and three of his
nine children. The subject, who emigrated from the Ukraine 3 years
earlier, had limited English-speaking ability and a history of mental
instability.

The Missoula County Sheriff's Department and Missoula Police
Department set up a perimeter and opened negotiations with the
subject in an attempt to resolve the standoff peacefully. However,
the subject's mental state and his insistence on speaking only in
Russian complicated the negotiations. Commanders at the scene
called the CMU, which set up telephonic support from CINT
negotiators for the sheriff's and police department's negotiators in
Missoula. The FBI also dispatched Russian-speaking agents to the
scene to provide language support. While these agents contributed
valuable linguistic assistance, they were not trained crisis
negotiators.

Missoula County authorities subsequently requested the assistance
of a Russian-speaking negotiator. CMU identified two CINT
members, one a native Russian speaker and the other, an
experienced Soviet counterintelligence investigator, and
immediately dispatched them from Washington, DC, to Missoula.

To resolve the situation, the Russian-speaking CINT member
directed and coached the subject's wife as she spoke with her
husband. By closely following the guidance provided by the
negotiators, she ultimately convinced her husband to surrender. The
direct involvement of CINT members and the professional effort of
the Missoula law enforcement com-munity peacefully resolved the
week-long standoff without further incident.



Conclusion

Protracted hostage and barricade situations present a special
challenge to law enforcement. By learning from past incidents and
tapping into the experiences of other law enforcement agencies
worldwide, the FBI Crisis Management Unit developed the Critical
Incident Negotiation Team. Through its training and consultation
services, the team of highly trained and experienced negotiators is
available to assist law enforcement agencies around the world to
resolve peacefully complex, high-risk incidents at any time, day or
night.



Endnote

Formerly the Special Operations and Research Unit, the CMU is
now part of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG).



Obtaining CINT Assistance

CINT negotiators provide telephonic consultation to law
enforcement agencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in response to
hostage or barricade incidents.

--During business hours, call the Crisis Management Unit
(703) 640-1130

--After hours, on weekends, and during holidays, call the FBI
Academy Switchboard (703) 640-6131

Requests for deployment of CINT members should be made
through the local FBI field office, which will coordinate with FBI
Headquarters and the Crisis Management Unit.
 
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