Training in Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Training in Crisis - Essay Example One of his demands is for immunity from the murder charge if he surrenders without harming any of the people in the house. His other demands are a case of beer and some fast food soon. He wants his demands met or "something will happen". Any occasion or incident where any person is said to be taken against his or her will for an exchange of demand or performance of an action is called hostage taking. The incident involving the man and his family held up inside their house and where he demanded for immunity from the murder, case of beer and fast food is an example of hostage taking. There are categories of hostage-takers. Hostage-takers can be classified as those of political activists, mentally stable, criminal deviants and inmates (â€Å"Initial Response to a Hostage Situation†, n.d.). According to the Initial Response to a Hostage Situation (n.d.), the following are the hostage-taker categories: Political activists or terrorists are characterized as those very aggressive, im pulsive, and devoted to their causes and often demand release of political prisoner, money or even publicity. Criminal deviants are those which are likely rational but caught in criminal act and for them to be released, use hostages as way of safely escaping. Mentally unstable are hostage-takers suffering from strange psychiatric condition which are often suicidal and use hostage taking situation as means of death. The man in the scenario is considered to be a criminal deviant. The act was caused by the murder done to his neighbour and the situation is used as a means to demand for a safe escape. He threatened to kill those people with him if his demands are not given. There are may be different types of structures of law enforcement team but in general, the structure is composed of the team leader, on-scene commander, negotiator, intelligence officer, communication officer, tactical team and police psychologist. As part of the team as police psychologist, there are generally two ma in roles: (1) participation in team development, training, and selection of personnel; and (2) operational assistance during the crisis itself, including monitoring of negotiation progress, psychological profiling of hostages and HTs, assessment of danger and risk level, monitoring the mental status of negotiators and other personnel at the scene, and participating in both operational and critical incident stress debriefings following the incident . (Miller, 2007) . According to Dr. Miller, â€Å"the highest fatality rate in hostage crises occurs during tactical incursion, the decision to order such an action is an excruciatingly difficult one.† This is when a police psychologist becomes an integral part of the team as the tactical team. Police psychologists are very important in the crisis negotiation because they are necessary in preparing the team of people responsible in dealing with a situation such as hostage taking when lives are at stake. The police psychologist must be able to make sure that the team to deal in the situation is prepared, well trained and is ready to negotiate and save lives. They are also important in analyzing the situation and the profile of the perpetrator and the team and this will really help in making sure that the protocols are being applied and modified according to each situation. Dr. Miller (2007) stated that â€Å"containment and negotiation strategies yield a 95 percent success rate in terms of resolving a hostage crisis without fatalities to either hostages or hostage-takers (HTs),