Crisis Negotiators - Refresher (NEGREF)

Purpose

To update police officers who are involved as negotiators in hostage takings or barricaded persons situations. The course provides the previously trained crisis negotiators with the latest philosophy and techniques in dealing with these situations, in addition to the opportunity of reviewing the course material they were taught while attending the Crisis Negotiators Course.

Course content

1. psychology of conflict management
2. communication skills (including active listening)
3. review of negotiation techniques, tactics and guidelines
4. emotionally disturbed persons
5. practical scenarios of hostage/barricaded person situations
6. case studies

Student selection criteria

Police officers are selected by their respective departments to assume and retain a negotiator's role in situations involving hostage takers or barricaded persons. Candidates must have successfully completed the Canadian Police College Negotiators Course - Hostage/Barricaded Persons (now known as the Crisis Negotiators Course). They must have taken this course after January 1996 to qualify for the refresher course. Police Officers who were certified prior to 1996 and who wish to update their skills will have to enroll in the eight day CPC Crisis Negotiators Course, unless they can demonstrate in writing to their program coordinator that they have maintained their skills and knowledge through other means. The CPC reserves the right to accept or reject applications for the refresher course based on the above conditions.

Frequency of taking this refresher course depends on how actively involved the police officer is in crisis interventions and related training. For instance, those who are not actively involved (ie. only a few crisis interventions/hostage barricaded incidents per year) should consider taking this refresher training every two years. Those who are actively involved (ie. many crisis interventions/hostage barricaded incidents per year) would not be required to take the refresher course as often (ie. every four to five years).

Case studies presented by candidates

Candidates are asked to prepare and present a short case study (maximum 20 minutes) from their respective police department. The case study should cover what went well and any lessons learned during the incident.

Student assessment

There is no written examination on this course. All candidates will be required to actively participate in role play scenarios. This will give them an opportunity to demonstrate that they have achieved key learning objectives covered during this course and they will be evaluated on their ability to act as a member of the negotiation team.

Duration of course: five working days

Class size: 16

Language of instruction: English, French