I Don't Beg... I Negotiate

     It's official: I'm now certified as a hostage negotiator by the International Association of Hostage Negotiators.  Kind of feels like being all dressed up with no place to go.


     Out of 75 in the class, I was the only one who was neither a cop nor active-duty military.  The training was organized by the PATC (Public Agency Training Council), which is the largest privately held law enforcement training company in the nation.  Since it's a private company, anyone who's willing to put up the money and the time can participate in any of the 100+ courses they offer (all related to law enforcement).  This particular course is taught by the IAHN (above) which was founded by Dominick Misino, a 22 year veteran of the New York Police Department where he served as the primary hostage negotiator for his last 6 years and was involved in over 200 hostage/barricade incidents.  One of his most note worthy cases was the negotiated release of 105 people aboard a hijacked Lufthansa aircraft. The suspect was convinced to allow the pilot to land at JFK international airport and then surrender to Dominick on the runway.  The training was excellent, and all five of the instructors were highly qualified in their respective fields.  We heard from a clinical psychologist who is a consultant and/or primary negotiator in Kidnap for Ransom cases around the world, the former commander of the NYPD hostage negotiation team, the former Director of the Atlanta PD hostage negotiation team, a clinical psychologist from the Miami-Dade PD, and the President of Enforcement Technology Group - a company that specializes in the design and manufacturing of high-tech crisis communications equipment. 

Me with Dominick and Dr. Hugh McGowan,
former commander of the NYPD hostage
negotiation team.  Hugh has over 1500
hostage/barricade incidents in his 35 year
career as a hostage negotiator.

     As I interacted with the other participants throughout the week I quickly came to a stark realization:  most of them come from police departments that have teams of trained hostage negotiators and all the advanced crisis communications equipment they could want or need (not to mention a SWAT team to back them up if the situation goes south).  I, on the other hand, have only myself and this training to turn to in the event that one of the churches or mission agencies that I've trained finds itself in a hostage crisis situation.  That was a sobering thought.

    

Fall is my favorite time of year here.  In the span of only a few days the Aspen trees turn from green to an incredibly brilliant array of yellows, golds and reds.  The Aspens pop out among the evergreen trees all over the mountainside - and in only a few more days they'll all be gone.