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Hostages
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ting suicide." The Leaf situation fell into that category.
The aim of the hostage negotiator is to get everyone, including the abductor, out alive and uninjured. “We don’t consider an operation like this a success unless everyone comes out alive,” said one state police officer.
To that end, the special teams assembled for such a situation are prepared to wait hours, days or weeks to resolve it without bloodshed. “As long as we can keep him talking, there’s a chance that he will give up and come out,” the officer said.
In the Utah hostage situation, the teams waited for more than a week, despite the fact that intermittent shots were fired from the farmhouse, including one which killed a Utah State Correctional Officer.
Mr. August refused to discuss negotiation techniques in detail, saying that they are top secret “for obvious reasons.” He did, however, say that there are three elements involved: 1) containment of the situation, not allowing the suspect or the victims to leave the area; 2) discourse, communication and negotiation with the perpetrator: and 3) time.
Time is on the side of the law. They have several teams which can work in shifts and can eat, drink and sleep when they’re off duty. Then they can return to relieve the other team, awake and rested.
The kidnapper, however, is more vulnerable the longer he waits. Fatigue and hunger are his biggest enemies. In most situations, he can’t satisfy either of those needs without the cooperation of the negotiators.
Mr. August also explained the “Stockholm syndrome,” in which the victims of the kidnapping become more dependent on their abductor as
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