Special Agent Duffy serves in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit at the FBI Academy.

Negotiators perform a number of duties during a crisis or a hostage situation. Primarily, they must communicate with criminals and disturbed or irrational individuals, while implementing the on-scene commander's directives by relaying them to the crisis site. They also record on paper information obtained during their discussions with the subject(s). The outcome of the crisis often depends on how successfully negotiators handle and disseminate this information. Experienced negotiators acknowledge that collecting, recording, and collating information become, at times, monumental undertakings. They routinely describe the appearance of their work areas during a crisis as piles of notes, 3 x 5 index cards, yellow Post-it notes, and paper scraps strewn across any flat surface. Without a systematic retrieval process, they must sort through mounds of written material to locate information when they need it.

Situation boards, or incident boards, offer one solution to this ongoing problem. Situation boards are nothing more than large sheets of paper, such as white flip-chart paper or sheets of tan butcher-block paper, often found in police department mail rooms, that are affixed to walls in close proximity to, or in sight of, the primary negotiator and the coach. These boards give both individuals immediate access to crucial information regarding the incident at hand. They also provide other crisis management team members a commanding view of information as it is processed.

While important, situation boards in no way eliminate the need for a negotiation log; rather, they serve solely as an immediate retrieval device for information. Additionally, situation boards allow team members arriving on the scene to be updated on developments without disturbing the others present.

Categorizing and Recording Information

Each situation board is dedicated to only one category of information. As negotiations proceed, a team member legibly prints the information obtained on the appropriate situation board. Printing large block letters with a black marker ensures readability from a distance. As a result of their experience in past crisis situations, FBI negotiators have identified several topic headings that could be used for situation boards and have categorized the information as follows-subject(s), hostage(s), weapon(s), medical histories, demands, deadlines, positive police actions, delivery plan, site, third-party intermediaries, surrender plan, escape plan, things to know, things to avoid, and important telephone numbers. Yet, inasmuch as all crisis situations are different, the type and amount of information obtained dictate the number and topics of board headings.

Under subjects, a team member would print the subject(s)' name(s), description(s), clothing, motives, association to hostage(s), health, criminal history, possible psychological status, and weapons. Weapons in the subjects' possession represent a vital concern for members of the crisis team. Accordingly, the type of weapon, who controls it, that person's location in the crisis site, and whether any member of the tactical team actually saw the weapon would be cross-listed on the weapons situation board.

The information for hostage(s) includes their names, descriptions, clothing, association to the hostage taker(s), medical histories, and any other information investigators can gather that might help resolve the crisis. Essentially, negotiators should know as much about the hostages as they know about the subjects, and situation boards give them these facts at a glance. Creating a situation board for medical histories and medications prescribed gives the negotiation team immediate access to known medical problems, which could be used to request the release of a hostage or to attempt a medical delivery. Additionally, negotiators can use medical problems to stress the importance of releasing infirmed hostages before their conditions deteriorate to the point where they become life-threatening.

The demands situation board notes all of the demands made by the subject(s), the times the subject(s) made these demands, and the time and response of the on-scene commander to each demand. Along with demands come the deadlines for each, which a team member prints on a separate board. This board records the time and date of each deadline, the name of the subject(s) setting the deadline, and the response of the crisis management team to the deadline. Ideally, negotiators talk subjects through each deadline, and as each one passes, a team member promptly notes it on the appropriate situation board.

Critical to resolving any crisis successfully are the positive police actions taken. These actions simply tell what the police have done for the hostage taker(s). Therefore, a situation board with this heading records the date and time of every food or med-ical delivery made by the crisis management team, as well as all telephone calls made to the subject by a team member or third-party intermediary.

Other comments also could be noted on the positive police actions situation board, such as "no gun fire directed toward hostage taker(s)" or "no assault by tactical team." While law enforcement personnel may not interpret such lack of activity as positive, subjects do because they constantly fear a tactical response and remain focused on this police option. The number of situation boards used to record information regarding the delivery of items to the crisis site reflects their importance to the crisis team. First, deliveries of food and medical supplies are considered positive police actions. They also are cross-listed on a situation board that records the delivery of such items as clothing or the "throw phone" the negotiator uses to communicate with the subject. Titled delivery plan, this situation board also outlines the plan for making deliveries. Detailing the delivery plan not only ensures coordination between negotiators and members of the tactical team but also may reveal weaknesses in the subject(s)' position. The delivery plan situation board also lists the time and date of the delivery, the items delivered, and who accepted the items. Finally, while making deliveries, members of the tactical team gather intelligence on the subject, the situation, and the site. They might note, for example, that their shoes squeaked on the floor. They would record this information on a separate situation board.

Another situation board describes the crisis site in tactical terms. That is, members of the tactical team assign each side of the building a color, each level a letter, and every opening, a number. They would designate the front of a building white; the back, black; the left, green; and the right, red. The floors would be labeled from the ground up, starting with alpha (A). Moving from left to right, each window and door would receive a number, beginning with 1. As an example, the third opening from the left on the second floor, front side of a building would be designated white-bravo-3.

If a negotiation team contemplates using third-party intermediaries, a situation board should be dedicated to a list of names and contact numbers for these individuals. The negotiation team then can interview the potential intermediaries and assess their value in resolving the crisis. As soon as possible after negotiations begin, the tactical team forwards an approved surrender plan to the negotiation team in the event the subject wants to surrender. A team member then lists the mechanics on the surrender plan situation board. It could prove embarrassing for law enforcement and potentially disastrous for the entire operation if a subject wants to give up, and no one knows how the surrender should take place. By the time the crisis management team develops such a plan, the subject may lose the desire to surrender.

As a general rule, negotiators try to caution hostages against escaping. But if they learned that the hostages were planning to escape, the negotiators would work with the tactical team to devise an escape plan. Their primary concern rests with the safety of the hostages, who might get hurt if mistaken for fleeing subjects. The escape plan situation board allows the team to track the method and avenue of escape, the number of hostage(s) escaping, and a description of their clothing. As a precaution, the tactical team would treat escaped hostages as subjects until their true identities were established.

Negotiators also can use situation boards to record facts they need to know and specific things to avoid. On the need to know board, a negotiator notes the questions the team needs to answer to resolve the crisis, which can range from how the subject feels about family members who want to assist to whether the subject has barricaded the crisis site.

The things to avoid board lists topics the negotiators should not discuss under any circumstances, for example, the subject's painful divorce or dismissal from a job. Law enforcement personnel develop these points as they conduct background investigations during the crisis. This situation board also would include actions to avoid. The subject may have demanded that negotiators remove tactical team members from the building across the street. If the on-scene commander agrees and does so, the team would note this action on the things to avoid board and cross-list it on the positive police actions board. Finally, a situation board for important telephone numbers gives negotiators immediate access to personnel and equipment suppliers. Listings include home and business, pager, and fax numbers.

Conclusion

No negotiator wants to work a crisis with only piecemeal information. Time wasted in locating a particular fact could result in serious consequences for an entire operation. Indeed, the successful resolution of any crisis situation hinges on the ability of both negotiators and tactical team members to quickly obtain and disseminate information. Easy to create and maintain, situation boards allow crisis team members to locate vital information almost instantaneously. They can make all the difference when lives are at stake and every second counts.
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