Each month, members of the Sully District Police Station’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) learn about a different section of the Fairfax County Police Department. Recently, they learned about hostage negotiations.
Det. Doug Comfort explained how the police handle hostage situations and how officers are trained to respond. And since he first started in this field with the Vienna Police Department in 1976, he has 40 years of experience in it.
“We tell [hostage holders] we’re there to help them, not hurt them, and to get them out of there alive,” he said. “We give them an out, usually involving mental-health treatment.”
In the early days, said Comfort, police didn’t have the ability to talk to the perpetrator directly, so they developed crisis-management teams. But it’s a part-time specialty for the officers, he said, because Fairfax County doesn’t have enough hostage cases to warrant full-time.
“So we work in conjunction with the SWAT team,” he said. “We do the negotiations and gain intelligence, and they base their response on that and on how well we’re doing with the person. In 1978, I was traded for a hostage — but that’s stupid and is no longer done.”
Seventeen officers are part of the hostage negotiations team. “Two captains and two lieutenants lead it, and it’s a team effort,” said Comfort. “So if I’m negotiating, I have a coach who’s helping me, plus multiple intelligence officers. They’re talking to family and friends — which I really enjoy doing — to get a picture of that person’s life. We also have a mental-health professional with us from Woodburn [Center for Community Mental Health]. So negotiations are done by group.”
“In 1978, I was traded for a hostage — but that’s stupid and is no longer done.”
— Det. Doug Comfort, Fairfax County police
Modern technology also plays a role. “Last year, we had one negotiation done completely by text,” said Comfort. “We stay up with the latest technology and negotiating techniques. We’re taking Crisis Intervention Training here so we can recognize whether the person is depressed, in their right mind, homicidal, suicidal, etc.”
“I enjoy doing it because it’s a huge challenge,” he continued. “And when you get someone out, after three or four or five hours, it’s very satisfying. The longest negotiation we had was over 24 hours. It’s usually spur-of-the-moment, so we listen to radio [transmissions] on the way over [to the scene] to learn more about the situation and who’s responding.”
Comfort then shared details of a barricade situation the police encountered in 2014. “This developed out of another situation and we hadn’t made contact with the person,” he said. “Then all of a sudden, we got a text from him. He was depressed and knew what he wanted to do — kill himself — and he set his house on fire. We’d been negotiating three or four hours and didn’t know whether he had hostages.”
Police learned later that he didn’t but, at the time, they had to assume he did. “We build trust between the person and we don’t lie to them,” said the detective. “The house caught fire a second time, but he didn’t plan that one and he couldn’t get out because of it. So our SWAT team turned into a rescue team. I’ve seen him a couple times since then, and he’s gotten help and is very grateful to us.”
Sometimes, the person speaks a foreign language and, in that case, Comfort also works with interpreters he’s familiar with and knows will translate accurately. “But you miss voice inflection and emotion, so I ask the interpreter to tell me if the person’s excited or depressed,” he said. “And in some cultures, the negotiation has to be done face-to-face, not over the phone.”
He said most hostage cases involve a variety of factors. “For example, a domestic problem may have sparked it and alcohol fueled it,” said Comfort. “But there may also be an underlying mental-health issue. We have to deal with each one separately and then put them all together. Hostage negotiations aren’t rushed.”