Policies
Grading
Course Outline
Instructor's Notes
Assignments
Bibliography
Instructor
Discussion
Board
Virtual Classroom
| |
PST 321 INSTRUCTOR'S NOTES WEEK TEN-
INTELLIGENCE AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
Welcome to week ten. This
week’s chapter deals with intelligence gathering.
As telecommunicators, you are no doubt familiar with the concept of
determining the who, what, where, when and how
of any given situation. While
intelligence gathering is usually far more complex than this, the amount of
initial information gathered many times establishes the initial response to the
situation. The worst thing a
negotiator can do is adopt the “Joe Friday Syndrome.” (i.e. “just the
fax”). Closed ended questions are
a major faux pas in negotiations. However,
basic information must be gathered in order to establish the environment of the
situation. One advantage that a
telecommunicator negotiator has over a police negotiator is the fact that people
are accustomed to having the 911 operator ask the who, what, where, and when
questions. As a telecommunicator
you can “play the part” without risking damaging the rapport building
process. You are expected to ask
such questions. Because of this
expectation, the hostage taker is more apt to answer these questions and not
become defensive. Therefore, if you
determine that you are dealing with a hostage/barricade situation, don’t be
too hasty to put on your negotiator hat. Spend
some time gathering intelligence first.
Just how much intelligence can be gathered over the telephone? While there are limitations, much of what needs to be known
can be acquired via telephonic communications.
Levels of intoxication, intellectual capability, levels of aggression,
relationships, sex, age and race are just of few of the pertinent nuggets of
information that can be mined over the telephone. Most police negotiators come from street patrol or criminal
investigations. They are trained
and have learned through experience how to “read” someone they are
questioning. It is often very
difficult for a police negotiator to get accustomed to “reading” someone
over the phone. Telecommunicators
spend most of their work time talking on the phone.
This gives you the advantage of already being able to listen for what is
not being said. Having a trained
ear allows the telecommunicator to comprehend many things that would be missed
by someone not accustomed to communicating over the phone in high stress
situations.
The text mentions the
“pre-incident phase” as one of the intelligence management phases of
negotiations. Telecommunicators
have access to a wealth of data concerning any past interaction with subjects at
a particular location. This
establishes the importance of adding good notes in the narrative section of the
call in C.A.D. (I’m assuming that most agencies use Computer Aided Dispatch or
some variant of that software). Whenever
possible try to add additional information in the notes concerning how a
hostage/barricade incident was resolved. I
realize this is not always possible to do.
However, it is very valuable intelligence if we have to deal with this
person again, as is so often the case. While
telecommunicators may not physically be at the scene (the second and third
phases of intelligence management) you should not assume that this precludes you
from the intelligence gathering process. Your
“presence” on scene during the most volatile time of the incident (the first
few minutes) allows for intelligence gathering at the most important time
without placing emergency personnel in harms way. It is very important that extensive notes be taken by the
telecommunicator during the incident. These
notes should include references to the various types of intelligence
information. The text lists three
types of intelligence information: Incident Intelligence, Tactical
Intelligence, and Person Intelligence. Most of the tactical intelligence is going to require someone
physically on scene. However,
incident and person intelligence can be gathered over the phone, and the attempt
should be made to do so.
Pages 348-350 in the text discuss
Monahan’s model of violence pre-indicators.
While there is no doubt that research has shown that certain individuals
are predisposed toward violent tendencies, it is imprudent to believe that one
can accurately predict the behavior of the human animal.
The human psyche is far too intricate and diverse to be quantified to a
checklist. Monahan’s model is an
excellent reference for determining statistically who is more apt to become
violent. However, do not put too
much faith in the accuracy of this determination.
That fact of the matter is humans are very unpredictable in high stress
situations. Someone who is normally
a very calm and sedate individual can become deadly violent given the influence
of the right stressor. The key for
us as negotiators is learning how to control the stressors and use them to our
advantage.
Negotiation Golden Rule # 9: “The
difference between a stressor and a motivator is the perception of the
recipient.”
|