kirch
07-23-2006, 03:54 PM
The other day an officer with my department was called to a local building in our jurisdiction. They had a suicidal person on the roof threatening to jump.
Our officer was the first to arrive and he immediately engaged the subject in discussion. Officers from 3 other agencies also responded, but our guy was the primary and talked to the person for a good 2 hours. Finally, the decision was made to call in a trained negotiator from a neighboring agencies.
As our guy reported it to me, what he had been unable to accomplish in 2 hours of talking, the negotiator handled in 5 minutes. So I guess there's something to be said for training.
Later that night, I ran into an officer I know from the negotiator's department. He was on the scene, and I told him our guy was sort of chagrined that he couldn't get the job done. He looked at me and said (under his breath, because there were other members of that department around), "That's because your guy was doing it safely." He went on to say that the negotiator had shown up, assessed the scene, and crawled out onto the ledge with the guy -- without any safety devices. Yeah, it worked...but you've got to be pretty confident in your ability to assess a person and what they might or might not do to attempt that.
As for me, I'm not gettin' on no 50-foot high ledge with a guy that wants to jump without a line or a dang parachute strapped to my butt -- and then I'd think about it long and hard before doing so. Yeah, I'll do my best to talk you out of splitting your melon on the asphalt, but I don't like you so much that I plan on joining you.
Our officer was the first to arrive and he immediately engaged the subject in discussion. Officers from 3 other agencies also responded, but our guy was the primary and talked to the person for a good 2 hours. Finally, the decision was made to call in a trained negotiator from a neighboring agencies.
As our guy reported it to me, what he had been unable to accomplish in 2 hours of talking, the negotiator handled in 5 minutes. So I guess there's something to be said for training.
Later that night, I ran into an officer I know from the negotiator's department. He was on the scene, and I told him our guy was sort of chagrined that he couldn't get the job done. He looked at me and said (under his breath, because there were other members of that department around), "That's because your guy was doing it safely." He went on to say that the negotiator had shown up, assessed the scene, and crawled out onto the ledge with the guy -- without any safety devices. Yeah, it worked...but you've got to be pretty confident in your ability to assess a person and what they might or might not do to attempt that.
As for me, I'm not gettin' on no 50-foot high ledge with a guy that wants to jump without a line or a dang parachute strapped to my butt -- and then I'd think about it long and hard before doing so. Yeah, I'll do my best to talk you out of splitting your melon on the asphalt, but I don't like you so much that I plan on joining you.