Hostage and crisis negotiation training
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035884
I note you seek access to the following information:
I'm trying to collate information on policing for hostage and crisis negotiations to understand how forces are tackling serious crime. Please can you provide information to the below, if possible:
- How many officers on the force are currently hostage and crisis negotiator trained?
- What is the type of training that is undertaken for this?
- How many days does training take?
- Who provides the training?
- How many officers undertook hostage and negotiator training in the individual years between 2017 - 2023?
Decision
I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 31(1)(a) - Law Enforcement
Reason for decision
For:
Q1 - How many officers on the force are currently hostage and crisis negotiator trained?
Q4 - Who provides the training?” (Note - to the extent that this part of your request concerns which police forces provide this training)
Q5 - How many officers undertook hostage and negotiator training in the individual years between 2017 - 2023?
Having considered this information for release, I have found that it is exempt in accordance with the following provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).
Section 31(1)(a)&(b) - Law Enforcement - of the Act provide that any information is exempt if its disclosure under the Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention or detection of crime or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
The Act is ‘applicant blind’. This means that we cannot, and do not, ask about the motives of anyone who asks for information. In providing a response to one person, we are expressing a willingness to provide the same response to anyone, including those who might represent a threat to the UK.
Where disclosure will likely jeopardise the primary functions of the MPS, namely to prevent and detect crime as well as apprehend and prosecute offenders, information needs to be protected.
In view of those functions, the tactical role of Negotiators is to deal with incidents and negotiate with subjects to resolve operations in line with the incident commander’s strategy. By doing so, they provide stability and support to those in command of such incidents. Therefore, providing the number of trained Negotiators and/or those officers trained each year within the MPS, along with other forces, would aid criminals to identify in which force areas the level of such a resource might be deemed as weaker, and use this knowledge to their advantage in furthering criminal activity around the force area and country as a whole.
In addition, naming the forces that deliver Negotiator training would provide enough information for individuals (or groups of individuals) with criminal or malicious intent to locate, reconnoitre and directly target relevant training facilities. This would include disrupting the ability to provide such training safely and efficiently. Ultimately, this would provide criminals a tactical advantage over the police, which could then be used to hinder our ability to fulfil basic law enforcement functions.
The disclosure of information which is likely to undermine the Police service’s ability to serve the public by providing the primary functions stated, can only be considered as being harmful to the public.
Disclosing the requested information would have a detrimental impact upon operational policing. Disclosing the number of trained Negotiators within the MPS and/or those officers trained each year, along with information relevant to their training, would provide those individuals or groups within the criminal fraternity a significant operational advantage as the information could be used with a view to disrupting training, or develop tactics that would divert resources away from locations that they wish to target. This would clearly jeopardise the ability of the MPS to respond appropriately to criminal activity and thereby protect the public.
The requested information could be used to compromise law enforcement capabilities by decreasing the ability of the police to fight crime, which would increase the commission of crime and subsequently have a detrimental impact on public safety as well as decrease public confidence in the police force.
I find that the strongest reasons favouring disclosure are to provide greater public awareness and openness in how public funding is being spent, and whether the MPS is suitably resourced to deal with crisis negotiation situations.
However, the strongest and most decisive reasons against disclosure are the impact that disclosure would have on public safety, and the prevention of the malicious redirecting of the MPS resources.
Clearly the release of any information that is likely to assist the criminal network and impact on our operational and tactical capabilities cannot be in the public interest and whilst wishing to embrace the ethos of information disclosure, this cannot take precedence over public safety.
Disclosure
Q2 - What is the type of training that is undertaken for this?
Training consists of attending a residential course which includes assessed role plays.
Q3 - How many days does training take?
The National Crisis Negotiator Course is two weeks long.
VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE (OUTSIDE OF THE ACT)
Q4 - Who provides the training?
I can confirm that training is provided by various UK Police Forces.
DUTY TO ADVISE AND ASSIST
Under Section 16 of the Act, there is a duty to advise and assist those that have made, or intend to make, a request for information. In accordance with this duty, I can confirm that the MPS publishes information about various types of crime on its website. I have provided a link to this information below.
MPS Website: Stats and Data
It may also assist you to note that the MPS proactively publishes all disclosures made in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on its Publication Scheme. I have provided a link to this section of the MPS website below.
MPS Website: Publication Scheme
The MPS Publication Scheme can be searched using keywords and may accordingly hold other information that is of interest to you.