The FBI's critical incident negotiation team.

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 assistance 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 community 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).

RELATED ARTICLE: 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 [phone]

* After hours, on weekends, and during holidays, call the FBI Academy Switchboard [phone]

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.

RELATED ARTICLE: Law Enforcement on the Internet

To take advantage of the many resources available on the Internet, the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin has driven onto the information superhighway. We invite you to ride along by communicating with us via e-mail. Our Internet address is: [e-mail]

We would like to know your thoughts on contemporary law enforcement issues. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Please include your name, title, and agency on all e-mail messages. Remember, [e-mail] is our e-mail address.

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.