Earlier in my FBI career, one of my assignments had been as a hostage negotiator. This can be a very delicate balancing act with an offender you’re trying to keep calm so he won’t harm his hostages on one side, and a SWAT team ready to break down the door, sweep in, and neutralize the hostage holder as quickly and efficiently as possible on the other. Some of the techniques we now use in behavioral science came from that experience.
