SAN MARCOS, Texas — Law enforcement officers nationwide descended upon Texas State University this week to participate in the 35th annual Hostage Negotiation Competition.
Thirty-three teams compete over two days working to make sure everyone in the scenario makes it home safe.
San Marcos Police Department Sgt. Dwayne Poorboy is one of the competition’s coordinators. According to Poorboy, hostage situations don’t happen often and only make up 4% of calls.
“But this is a new circumstance where all day long they’re trying to solve this hostage situation,” Poorboy said. “It forces them to use those skills that are so critical.”
Teams are given the same scenario to work through. This year, those teams include law enforcement agencies from Singapore to New York.
According to Poorboy, they give teams a brief breakdown of the victims involved and then they must work to collect intel to solve problems in real time. That includes the demands hostage takers make, what weapons they have, and the risk level of the situation.
Wednesday’s scenario involves the board of a health care company being held hostage.
“The primary negotiator is active listening. Empathy … they’re looking to build rapport before they solve the problem,” Poorbody said.
Officer Kimberly Krtinich is the lead negotiator for Hays County’s Team. This is her first year participating, but she’s trying to stay calm during the high-intensity exercise.
“This is a hard one for sure,” Krtinich laughed. “It’s just like when I’m on patrol dealing with someone that’s mad. When you go up to their level, that’s not going to solve anything. You, essentially, try to bring them down to where you are.”
The criteria used to judge teams include how well they work together and how well they listen to the person they’re speaking to.
“Lots of times where I think police officers have made mistakes in the past is when we’re rushing things just to be rushed,” Poorboy said. “We’re not really hearing what’s going on … So, we’re just trying to really enhance those skills to make better negotiators, but I would argue better police officers, better humans.”
Krtinich said she already knows she can apply the skills to her everyday work.
“You’re dealing with people in the worst days of their lives, so they’re gonna be more exaggerated and more frustrated, but you’re going in there to bring peace to the situation and resolution,” Krtinich said.
While teams work through scenarios upstairs in the Hines Academic Center, downstairs Texas State students act as hired hostage takers.
The actors are given scripts to follow that give them a rundown on when to make progress in the scenario, but the lines they say are all improved.
“I’m trying to bully a group of cops and not give in to them what they’re asking me,” Colton Ayers said while laughing.
The actors are trained to become more aggressive if law enforcement groups are too hasty to solve the problem. Ayers said he thinks the training is useful to those who protect and serve.
For Poorboy, while this is a competition, he believes there are no real losers. He said he hopes everyone can take something away from the training and apply it to their police work.
Next year’s competition will happen a week before classes at Texas State University start. This year’s winner will be announced Thursday night.