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PST 221 - Role in Hostage Negotiations
Welcome to PST 221 Role in Hostage Negotiations
This course is designed to introduce the student to the many facets of hostage negotiations. Hostage negotiations training has historically been confined to the law enforcement community. Most law enforcement agencies have trained negotiators on hand to deal with situations involving hostages or suicidal persons. However, many times (if not most) the first person to make contact with a hostage taker or suicidal person is the 911 operator. Therefore, it is imperative that personnel in emergency communications be trained in how best to deal with these situations. After completing this course the student should have a basic understanding of hostage negotiations concepts and a thorough understanding of how best to deal with hostage takers and suicidal persons.
This course will address the topic from an historical
as well as a contemporary perspective. While hostage negotiations is a relatively new concept, it
has an interesting history that cannot be ignored.
Therefore, one of the first topics to be covered in the class will be the
history of hostage negotiations. Because
hostage negotiations training is a perishable skill, it is important that a
negotiator keep abreast of current research on the topic. The
bibliography section of this site contains a list of books on the topic of
hostage negotiations and suicide, most of which are up to date.
While none of these books are required reading for the course, they are
recommended if the student wishes to delve further into this fascinating topic.
An outline has been prepared and presented in the
course outline.
The course will follow the outline as scheduled unless unforeseen
circumstances dictate a change. Any
digression from the outline will be discussed thoroughly prior to making
changes.
Topic Concerns: This class will on occasion be dealing with the topic of
suicide. If a student has issues
concerning this topic, please contact the instructor via e-mail or phone (by
request the instructor will e-mail a phone number) in
order to discuss concerns.
Time zone concerns: All references to meetings during this course will be given
based on the United States Eastern Time Zone (ETZ).
Students will be logging on from different time zones and should always
refer to the ETZ when discussing meeting times etc.
Gender Reference: The instructor notes that are posted for every week of this
course will refer to the male gender in most cases when referencing the
negotiator, suspects or others. This
reference is purely generic and should always be understood to include the
female gender.
Required Text: The
required text for this course is as follows:
McMains, M.J. and W.C. Mullins (2001). Crisis Negotiations, Managing
Critical Incidents and Hostage Situations in Law Enforcement and Corrections.
Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Company.
Recommended
Text: Another text that
would be helpful for this class and a useful reference in the future is as
follows:
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition - Text Revision. Washington, DC:
APA