Chapter X

PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES IN HOSTAGE SITUATION

At the end of this chapter the student should be able to understand:

 Elaborate the procedures in hostage situation;

 Enumerate the police tactics and techniques in hostage taking.

THE PNP OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES IN HOSTAGE SITUATION

Sec. 1 procedures to be followed in a Hostage Situation

a. A Crisis Management Task Group shall be activated immediately.

b. Incident scene shall be secured and isolated.
c. Unauthorized persons shall not be allowed entry and exit to the incident scene.
d. Witnesses’ names, addresses, and other information shall be recorded.
Witness shall be directed to a safe location.

Sec. 2 Ground Commander- there shall be only one a ground commander in the area.

Sec. 3. Negotiator- he shall be designated by the Ground Commander.

Sec. 4. Assault Team- An assault team shall be alerted for deployment in case the
negotiation fails. Members of the team shall wear authorized and easily recognizable
uniform during the conduct of the operation. Bonnets shall not be used.

Sec. 5. Assault Plan- The assault shall be planned to ensure minimal threat to life for
all parties.

Sec. 6 Support Personnel- An ambulance with medical crew and a fire truck shall be
detailed at the incident area.

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Sec. 7. Coordination- proper coordination with all participating elements shall be detailed
at the incident area.

Sec. 8 Safety of Hostages- In negotiating for the release of a hostage, the safety of the
hostage shall always be paramount.

Sec. 9. Procedures to be followed during Negotiations

a. Stabilize and contain the situation.
b. Select the right time to make contact with the hostage-taker;
c. Take time when negotiating;
d. Allow hostage-taker to speak;
e. Don’t offer the hostage-taker anything. What he will ask for will be part of
the negotiation.
f. Avoid directing frequent attention to the victim when talking to the hostage-
taker;
g. Do not call them hostages. Be as honest as possible; avoid tricks; be
sincere;
h. Never dismiss any request from the hostage-taker as trivial or unimportant.
i. Never say “NO”;
j. Soften the demands;
k. Never set a deadline; try not to accept a deadline;
l. Do not make alternate suggestions not agreed upon in the negotiation;
m. Do not introduce outsiders (non-law enforcement officers) into the
negotiation process, unless their presence is extremely necessary in the
solution of the crisis; provided that they shall be properly advised on the
do’s and don’ts of the hostage negotiations.
n. Do not allow any exchange of hostages, unless extremely necessary; in
particular, do not exchange a negotiator for a hostage;
o. Avoid negotiating face-to-face; and
p. Law enforcement officers without proper training shall not be allowed to
participate in hostage negotiations.

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PRINCIPLES, TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES IN DEALING WITH HOSTAGE –
TAKING INCIDENT

a. POLICE ORGANIZATION FOR COUNTERING HOSTAGE TAKING

1. A police force must have an established contingency plan or procedure to deal

with the problem of hostage – taking if it occurs within its jurisdiction, first of all,
there should be a pre-planned procedure on how the various elements of the police
force have to be organized on the ground or at the scene of the incident. The
ground organization is an ad-hoc arrangement of police that is immediately set up
when a hostage taking incident take place. Such arrangement is pre-planned to
delineate functions and responsibilities of responding police elements, prevent
confusion and successfully deal with the problem. A suggested ground
organization consists of the following groups and elements.

a. The command group

b. The operating group
1. negotiating team
2. investigation team
3. crowd control them
4. intervention unit or assault force
5. traffic control elements
6. intelligence team
7. search and recovery team
c. Administrative group
1. media relation team
2. catering services
3. other admin support

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 d. Technical support group

1. Communication team
2. EODT
3. Medical Ambulance team
4. Rescue and evaluation team
5. special equipment team

2. The scale of size of the foregoing organization is flexible and should be adapted
to the magnitude of the operations. The assembly procedure of the ad-hoc
organization should be subject to periodic field training exercise (FTC) i.e., the
contingency plan itself should be rehearsed from time to time.

3. A small compact and special trained unit should be also organized particularly in
places (usually urban areas) where hostage – taking and kidnapping that can be
called upon to assault the lair of the kidnappers or hostage takers to rescue and
liberate the hostage and neutralized/capture the terrorist /criminal elements. This
unit is specially trained in such operations, and is composed of well selected
personnel who have physical, emotional and psychological stability to withstand
and stressful conditions.

B. POLICE TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES

1. The principal factors that will influence police decisions are:

a. number of offenders
b. number of hostages
c. personality of the offenders
d. motivation of the offenders
e. motivation of the offenders
f. equipment and implements of violence at the disposal of the offenders.

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2. The decision to assault the lair of the hostage – takers and free the victim is the
responsibility of the ground commander, and the intervention unit commander. The
decision to tactically intervene is usually given when negotiation completely fails
and it has become clear that the terrorist are about to start harming or killing the
hostages or are started to do so. That is, the government forces are left no other
choice to ensure the safety of the hostages. However, when hostage – taking has
political color and/or international complication and therefore, not simply a police
problem, the higher commander and those having political authority are usually
brought into the picture in accordance with the demands of the situation.

3. In any hostage – taking incident, a priority consideration is to establish controlled

communication links with the offenders, and negotiate for the safe release of the
hostage. If possible, a police personnel trained in the art of negotiation or has
such skills is assigned in this job. The principal objectives of the negotiator are:

a. To secure time and assist in intelligence gathering and tactics for a

successful armed assault:
b. To secure the release of as many hostages as possible, in the process.

In relation to the “siege of the Iranian embassy in London the following

principal about negotiation has become clear, and is lesson learned there from:

a. The negotiator primary tasks is to save the lives of the hostage; he should
be able to sole link of the offenders with the outside world;
b. Each siege is different;
c. The negotiator should gin time, whenever possible;
d. The hostage and the hostage-takers should be isolated;
e. The negotiator is part of the incident team:
f. The negotiator should avoid exposure which might result in his becoming a
hostage;

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 g. All negotiations must be recorded;
h. All negotiations must be conducted on the basis of referral to higher
authority, thus, idly, the deciding authority should not be the negotiator
himself;
i. No single negotiator should become the sole line of communication and to
avoid this danger, negotiators should be employed a team.

4. The communications used by the offenders should be controlled by the police.

5. The isolation of the immediate premises of the scene of the hostage – taking is the
first tactical consideration of the police, then followed by the control of
communication and the initiation of negotiation. Isolation of the scene goes hand-
in-hand with police control of communication with hostages.

c. INTELLIGENCE

1. Police operation dealing with hostage taking situation relies heavily upon the
intelligence available. The inquiries being conducted by the detectives or
interrogators and the statements taken from the witnesses and released
hostages produced much intelligence.
2. Observation post should be established at a place having a commanding view
over the scene of hostage incident.
3. The specific purposes of intelligence are:

a. To assist in understanding what is taking place in the building where the

hostage are kept;
b. To better conduct the police operation.
c. To prepare for any form of armed action by the police;
d. To assist negotiators in their prime task;
e. To assist in forming negotiating ploys, or ideas;
f. To provide an information weapons held by terrorist; and,
g. To assist in the event of armed intervention by the assault team.

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 d. ACTIVITY AFTER INTERVENTION OPERATION

When the hostage incident is terminated by the assault of the intervention unit, and
hostages liberated, care must be taken to prevent the perpetrators from mixing with the
hostage and affording to opportunity to escape. Hence. Persons freed from a hostage
incident should be brought to an exclusion area and handcuffed until their identities are
established.
When the building or scene of the hostage – taking has been cleared by the
intervention unit, it is in fact a crime scene cleared to be protected and processed for
every bit of items of evidentiary value. The scene must be placed under investigator in
charge, who become the scene manager that directs search and recovery of evidence.
The search and the recovery team shall normally include evidence technicians, evidence.
The search and the recovery team shall normally include evidence technicians, evidence
custodian/recorder. EOD personnel and photographer. Their purpose is to recover the
death bodies remaining in the building, to provide evidence in continuity in the
conveyance of the bodies from the building to the pathologist; to preserve and to preserve
and recorded details of any potential exhibits could be material to any court proceedings,
and as a matter of records.

Reference
Topics Video Links
Fundamental Model of Negotiation - the Basic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Negotiation Process =PKz4pDm1e90
DISPUTE RESOLUTION PART 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=9qWmlaZA_7Q&t=2588s
Conflict Resolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=KY5TWVz5ZDU