What’s the career path generally if you wanted to become a crisis negotiator in, for example, the FBI? I looked on their webpage but could not find clear answers…
“They always jump.” – Max Berman, Best In Show.
I used to work with a guy who had been a hostage negotiator. He was a purchasing agent when I knew him and he couldn’t negotiate a fair price to save his life. I don’t know how he got into it–he probably had a minor in French literature or something–but if he can do it, a headless chicken can.
Other than that I’ve got nothing for you, except that according to the documentary The Negotiator, if you’re a hostage negotator who gets caught up in a pension fund scandal the best thing you can do is take your coworkers hostage and talk about cowboy movies with the negotiator that gets called to deal with you. Just a thought to keep in mind.
Stranger
It may be best to be a cop (or corrections officer). Hopefully a member of the FBI will also chime in regarding the chances of getting into/staying in a negotiator assignment there, however, they seem to get moved around a lot.
In local police departments, it depends on the selection process.
More importantly, as with all law enforcement specialties, you need to have a love of the basic work, and be able to master it, in order to get into special assignments. At my department, you would need to work the street for three or more years before you could test for negotiator. Even then, it isn’t a full-time assignment, so you would still be performing patrol duties, or working in investigations or another regular assignment. Except for a few very large departments, negotiators get called out only as needed.
good luck!
AzRob
I agree with AZRob. In law enforcement, and I assume in the FBI as well, you don’t just get hired as a negotiator. You would do the regular job and being a negotiator would be an extra assignment.
We have two negotiators in my department (it works best if they act as a two-person team). They are a patrol officer and a sergeant. They took a week-long course taught by FBI instructors and occasionally go to a refresher seminar.
I don’t know for certain, but I doubt anybody has a full-time job doing nothing but crisis negotiation. You work a regular job in the agency and you get called when you’re needed to act as negotiator. It just doesn’t come up frequently enough to require a full-time position.
Join a police department, get onto the TAC or SWAT team. Once there, you can pursue special training courses and other extracurricular activities that will begin to give you the background necessary. After that you pretty much have to hang around and wait for a hostage crisis, which doesn’t happen much. You can practice at the SWAT/TAC team drills, but that’s not quite the same and doesn’t go on your resume far as I know. During all this, you can presumably be trying to get into the FBI, which might take you for more of the same.
So, the path I’ve seen is:
PD --> TAC/SWAT team --> negotiator for tac team --> (optional) FBI & beyond.