Negotiations

Negotiations are a key part of your job as a police officer, your primary job within negotiations is to ensure the safety of the hostage over catching the suspects taking the hostage.Negotiations are a difficult task as some hostage takers may be aggressive or unrealistic with what the are asking for your job as the negotiator is to come to a conclusion they are happy with to release the hostage.Linked below there will be the main negotiation handbooks for you to follow and read over but this will cover some of the key points for your time negotiating as an officer.

• When taking negotiations you can issue them up to 3 warnings if they get to their 3rd warning you must ask a member of SCO19/Divisional command for authorisation to call off negotiations and the reason for you wanting to call them off. You cannot call off negotiations yourself.

• Make sure to announce yourself as the negotiator as if you do not there is potential they may also try and take you as a hostage increasing their demands.A good example of how to announce yourself is the following “Hello my name is [Rank + Name] With the Metropolitan Police, I am going to take basic negotiations for this hostages life".

•  What demands they want for the hostage to be released unharmed and safely.

.

• Some reasons you can issue warnings are the following:Running into the back of the store,Pointing their weapon at officers outside or pointing at yourself,Asking for unrealistic demands such as a helicopter or 1 million pounds.

• You can not give warnings to the suspect for aiming their gun at the hostage
  
  

The negotiation handbook can be found HERE for anything else you are unsure of.