When to negotiate

SCO-19 officers can be required in different types of situations and they are normally the first officer to contact the suspect in the ongoing situations. If there are no SCO-19 officers available any Trained MPD Negotiator can take basic negotiations until a SCO-19 officer becomes available.

Where are negotiators required

Negotiators are required in situations such as Bank Robberies, Store Robberies, Hostage Situations. SCO-19 officers are almost always in charge of all the above situations and regardless of the rank of the officer, they must adhere to the negotiators' judgement even if they disagree.

How to negotiate

When first showing up to a scene you must almost instantly achieve mutual respect in the situation. Disrespecting the suspect or getting into a shouting match can escalate the situation and could result in loss of life.

Before starting negotiations, always offer them the chance to hand themselves in, offer them a minimum fine and sentence if they were to surrender and let the hostage leave freely. If they decide to refuse, continue with negotiations.

After the negotiations begin, make sure you set a baseline from the beginning to show the hostage taker that you are in control of the situation and threats do not bother you. An example of this would be:

Suspect: “I want 100k for the hostage’s life”

Negotiator: “Well, that is not going to happen I can give you 5k and not a penny more”

Immediately setting this level gets into the head of the suspects and they will immediately feel out of control of the situation and will want to get out of the situation as fast as possible. This allows you to now give terms of negotiations that will benefit the CMG PD.

When arriving on scene it is very important for you to announce yourself correctly. All negotiators must follow the below protocol:

“My name is [Rank+Name] with the CMG Police Service, I am going to be taking negotiations for this officer’s / civilian’s life. Can you explain the situation?”

Collecting info

As soon as you arrive on scene you want to be gathering information about the scene to build a picture up on how it should be approached. When negotiation you should check off this list:

• Are there any hostages?

• Proof of life?

• Are the suspects armed?

• Are the suspects acting aggressively?

Once you have gained this information it allows you to approach with confidence in the following steps. Obviously, the suspects can lie about certain factors and it's extremely important to discreetly obtain as much information as possible.

Example: “Do you have a vehicle? And how many seats do you need?”

This is a common question to ask to find out how many suspects are inside the building without directly asking or them telling you. There are other types of questions that you can ask to the same effect.

Suspects will always try to make the situation easier for themselves and as a negotiator you do not want to make it obvious what your main pieces on the chessboard are.

Example: Do not tell them NPAS are standing outside and you have Interceptors on scene to pursue them.

Here are demands that no matter what, you should never give in to:

• Officers must holster their weapons, 

• Officers must leave the scene, 

• Marksman must move, 

• SCO-19 must leave,

• Every officer must stand where the suspect can see them,

• No NPAS.

By giving into these demands, you lose control of the situation. These demands lower the defence of the scene and increase the risk to life of all involved and the public. Negotiating can be a very successful position to uphold but it is very important that you maintain communications between every other officer on scene.

Every situation eventually comes to a head, when you are a trained negotiator you must be able to tell when the suspect is likely to call negotiations off or make a dramatic move to swing the situation. In EVERY single scenario the desirable outcomes are as follows: -

• Hostages Secured ALIVE

• Ensuring safety of everyone on the scene

• Ensuring no casualties on either side

• Securing all suspects, ideally alive.

Obviously not every scene is the same and it is never going to be the perfect outcome but hold this in your mind throughout the whole period of negotiations

If you believe that the hostage takers are there for roleplay, it is up to your discretion to bend the rules and give in to some demands. An example of this would be if they have a high ranking CMG PS officer hostage. If they are requesting a helicopter then you must do everything in your power to make sure that officer comes out alive.

How to call off Negotiations

Example: Negotiations have been called off CMG Police Service put your hands in the air or you will be shot.

As the negotiator, you have numerous resources available to you during negotiation, Such as:

• NPAS units

• SCO-19 and Marksmen units

• Response team

• Interceptors

 Once you become the negotiator, you have the entire police force at your disposal. It is essential that you utilise it correctly.

As the negotiator you cannot be harmed in any way by the people you are negotiating with until negotiations are called off. Keep in mind that they do not have to explicitly say negotiations are called off but may instead RP that they are done with negotiation.

When negotiating, try to maintain a level of control over the situation and act professionally.

As the negotiator, you are in control of the scene and should be keeping other units in the loop as to what the negotiations terms are and any useful information such as if there is initiation on the vehicle.

Being the negotiator, you have full judgement over the scene and will be able to use the police on scene how you see fit.

After negotiations have concluded you are to search the hostage and they can only leave once you give them permission.

Never clamp vehicles upon negotiations being finalised, always allow passage to the vehicles. 

Officer behaviour

• Always stay calm

• Maintain a confident demeanour when negotiating with the suspects

• Do not use any insults towards the suspects, stay professional at all times.

• You must announce that you are calling off negotiations before breaching the building or engaging with the suspect.

• When coordinating a breach try to use 1 non-lethal weapon for every 3 lethal weapons you are breaching with.

•  If the hostage is harmed in any way, then negotiation should be called off and breaching should start.

•  If you see a sufficient window to breach to save the life of the hostage, then you may call off negotiations. For example, the hostage is unsupervised while the robbers are negotiating

• Once negotiations are called off you cannot restart negotiating. They have proved they are not willing to negotiate properly for the hostages’ life.

•  Make sure the breaching structure is followed. So SCO officers go first, then Divisional Command, then shotguns. Pistols should only come in if there is not enough people on the breach to begin with

• You are not permitted to give any government issued police weapons, police cars or helicopters in a negotiation

• You are not able to supply the suspect with any illegal items in negotiations

• When negotiating, do not give the suspect everything they ask for. Make sure the demands are reasonable. For example, if the suspects wants you to sing a song for them then you would inform them that you are unable to do that

• When something is promised by the negotiator then it must be followed through

• When giving free passage make sure you clarify where the free passage ends. For example, if they have free passage to the vehicle make sure to mention that their free passage ends once the engine turns on.

•  Always try to get the suspect to pay below the max amount. However if they are persistent in asking for the max amount and won’t budge, do keep in mind they are entitled to that.

Maximum Price of hostage:

• Civilian 20k

• NHS and Police 50k

• Silver Command 150k+

• Gold Command 200k+

Before issuing warnings to the hostage taker, you should try to de-escalate the situation. This is done to avoid giving warnings to people unnecessarily. If the person is starting to get aggravated toward the police on scene, try to get them to calm down. You can do this by speaking calmly to them or reassuring them that you are trying to get everyone out of the situation alive. If the person has calmed down, you can offer them a reduced sentence and fine if they hand themselves in to PD.

Some examples of times that de-escalation works include: “If you continue running around, I will have to issue warnings, so can we please continue negotiating? I want to get you out of here alive.”

Reasons to Issue Warnings in Negotiations!

• Suspect is asking for unrealistic demands (Free passage to plane/helicopter, asking for extreme amounts of money)

• Suspect is shooting their firearm

• Suspect has shaved the hostages head

• Suspect is threating to cause harm to the officers/hostage

• Suspect is aiming their weapon at officers (Do not giving a warning for aiming the gun at the hostage)

• Suspect is refusing to negotiate (This could lead up to negotiations being called off, do not instantly rush to calling them off if they don't negotiate at first)

Reasons to call off Negotiations!

• Suspect has taken a hostage within a police station (This is up to negotiators discretion)

• Suspect has been issued 3 warnings

• Suspect has caused harm to the hostage/officers (Shooting the hostage and hitting them)

• Suspect has taken the negotiator hostage.