“ Often in a hostage/barricade situation we will be dealing with people whose reactions will be difficult to predict. In considering both assault and negotiation options in a complex hostage/barricade situation, it is important to know the likely reaction of the suspects. For this, we must have the input of experts in the behavioral sciences.
Behavioral scientists should be included as part of the crisis management team, training with the components of the team, traveling to the scene with them, and helping to develop negotiating strategies. ”

“ The rules of engagement for freeing hostages where innocent civilians are at imminent risk of harm are different from the rules of engagement in situations where there is no imminent threat to life. If an innocent person's life is in immediate danger at the hands of the suspects, then immediate action using deadly force against the suspects may be justified. This urgency characterizes many hostage situations, especially terrorist incidents. In other situations, like the one at Waco, the absence of an imminent threat means there is time to develop a plan and carefully review it. ”

“ Just as we turn to the military for equipment that it is uniquely able to provide, so should we be able to turn to the FBI to perform the tactical operations that it is uniquely situated to conduct. The substantial investment that we make in it already, and the increased investment that I propose, will enable the FBI to deal with potential terrorist incidents and to conduct other high-risk operations. ”

“ Once a major crisis situation develops within federal jurisdiction, there should be no debate about calling in the FBI as the lead agency to take operational control of the situation. Concentrating our efforts on further enhancing the FBI's crisis management skills and making the HRT the premier special response unit will constitute a more efficient use of law enforcement resources and is likely to yield better results than would the development of a number of units that lack similar equipment and training. ”

“ Hostage/barricade situations are sometimes resolved by negotiated surrenders, sometimes by the use of tear gas or other non-lethal force to incapacitate the suspects or force them to leave their stronghold, and sometimes by dynamic, high-risk entries by law enforcement officers. In dynamic entry operations, developed by counterterrorist teams, law enforcement officers enter the area in which the suspects are located through an overpowering assault and try to take them into custody; the officers must be prepared to shoot anyone who threatens them with a weapon. ”

“ Training of the crisis managers must take account of the need to integrate the assault unit, negotiation, and intelligence functions that are essential to the effective resolution of a crisis. The crisis managers will be familiar with available resources from tactical, behavioral, and scientific areas. Emphasis will be placed on training them with members of the HRT, SWAT, SOARU, CINT, and behavioral scientists, all of whom will be under their command during a crisis. ”

“ Before any federal law enforcement agency undertakes a high risk raid with a significant danger of loss of life of innocent parties or agents, raid plans should be carefully scrutinized by high-ranking officials who will be accountable for the results. All agencies should adopt guidelines that will ensure that raid plans are thoroughly reviewed before they are executed and that standards are enforced to ensure the safety of law enforcement personnel, innocent persons and targets of law enforcement operations. ”

“ Our religious studies experts point out that law enforcement can easily undervalue the strength and sincerity of the convictions of people whose beliefs are not familiar. Often religious and political motivations and their likely effect on behavior are crucial factors in law enforcement decisions. The FBI Academy gives new agents 17 hours of instruction in the behavioral sciences, as well as instruction about the first amendment rights of political and religious groups. ”

“ Current FBI policy, which should be the policy for all law enforcement agencies, is that the news media may not accompany agents during raids and will not be given advance notice of such operations. Operations which depend upon surprise should never be disclosed in advance to anyone without both a legitimate law enforcement need to know about the operation and a commensurate obligation not to disclose the information. ”

“ It is essential that the FBI have well-trained, experienced crisis managers to serve as on-scene commanders and coordinate complex operations such as Waco. The crisis manager chosen for an incident should be a person who is well versed in the particular type of incident and familiar with the FBI's capabilities to handle the situation. Consistent with the observations of some of our experts, the FBI has proposed, and I recommend, that 15 Special Agents in Charge ("SACs") be selected and trained as a cadre of crisis managers who may be deployed to handle major crisis incidents such as Waco. ”

“ We focus on situations involving a significant number of well-armed individuals because a number of federal law enforcement agencies are especially trained and highly capable in dealing with the far more familiar situation of one or a few individuals -- perhaps bank robbers -- who have been trapped and are holding a small number of hostages. ”

“ There may be rare circumstances in which a member of the media learns about a planned raid through independent sources, and the appropriate law enforcement official determines that it is necessary to give that person unusual access in return for his or her promise not to reveal any information to the targets of the raid. ”

“ I recommend that the Department of Justice, through NIJ, consider expanding these efforts with the Department of Defense, members of the intelligence community, the Department of Energy, including the National Laboratories, and private industry to develop non-lethal technology for use in law enforcement. By working together, these organizations can develop new methods of bringing armed confrontations to peaceful resolutions by neutralizing hostile suspects without using deadly force. ”

“ During the Waco siege, the FBI made substantial use of behavioral science information. In the future, the FBI should broaden its available pool of resources for outside consultation. It will maintain the names of behavioral scientists and academicians who may be consulted in the course of training and for information and advice about particular events. This inventory will be maintained by the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Services Unit at Quantico, which is available for consultation by other law enforcement agencies. ”

“ The crises about which we are concerned pose great dangers and require skills that are not routinely available to law enforcement agencies, including those that have teams with advanced training in Special Weapons and Tactics ("SWAT") . When faced with complex hostage/barricade incidents, law enforcement must respond with four critical elements and an organization that provides additional support functions. The critical elements are (1) a well-equipped and highly skilled tactical team to contain the suspects and bring the incident to a close, using, if necessary, appropriate force ”

“ The behavioral science, negotiation, and tactical capacities must be integrated in a way that allows the components to work together, and they must be directed by individuals skilled in handling these situations in the field under policy guidance from the political levels of government. ”

“ Coordinating with colleagues at Quantico, the behavioral science expert on the scene will be able to gather information about the suspects and talk to experts, including persons in the academic community, who have information about them.
We must also expect crisis managers to give full consideration to behavioral science input in developing an overall strategy and in evaluating the likely consequences of particular negotiation techniques or tactical decisions. Inevitably there will be disagreements about strategies - indeed, disagreement is evidence of a healthy internal debate. ”

“ Because the reactions of the armed individuals depend upon their beliefs and personalities and are likely to vary in ways that are important to negotiators and rescuers, it is important to have and be able to use a behavioral science component that can advise the tactical and negotiation groups about what to anticipate. ”

“ Because negotiations and rescue assaults are alternative courses in many of the situations we are discussing, the negotiators should be familiar with the capacities of the HRT operations, and the HRT should be familiar with the strategies of the negotiating team. What is necessary in many circumstances is a highly coordinated effort using both sets of capacities, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes in sequence. The special demands on each group to understand the other require joint training operations at Quantico. ”

“ The characteristics of potential perpetrators of siege incidents, including particular terrorist groups, and their conduct during hostage incidents should be available for use by crisis managers.
C. CONTINUE TO PROMOTE RESEARCH INTO NON-LETHAL AND LESS-THAN-LETHAL TECHNOLOGIES
Research into "less-than-lethal" or "non-lethal" technology holds great promise for the future of law enforcement. The objective of such research is to identify technologies that will permit the use of non-injurious means to resolve tactical situations without the use of deadly force. ”

“ These capacities are expensive to create and maintain; the necessary skills are scarce. The United States government should have one such structure available to serve wherever a major threat of the sort I have described calls for federal law enforcement. With its Hostage Rescue Team, Critical Incident Negotiation Team, Behavioral Science Unit, other relevant components and large number of personnel, the FBI, according to the experts, is the obvious choice. ”

“ Finally, the Waco situation was shaped by the fact that the FBI became involved only after agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("ATF") had been killed. Responding to a crisis in which people have already died is substantially different from planning an operation in which bloodshed may be avoided. Certain peaceful negotiated outcomes, such as holding out the hope that some suspects might escape prosecution for serious offenses, were necessarily foreclosed. ”

“ My recommendations follow the suggestions of our experts about ways to improve this core structure.
To support the critical elements, there must be a tactical team to maintain an "outer perimeter" to keep others away from the scene; the ability to call upon the military for any necessary support with tactical and transportation equipment; the capacity to gather intelligence from inside and outside the barricades; liaison with other law enforcement agencies and prosecutors ”

“ There are a well established set of procedures and very skillful and highly capable people prepared to deal with such situations when they involve Americans in foreign countries; our concern here is with domestic situations. ”

“ The Assistant Director should also have available a representative of the social science unit, one who has some experience and some academic knowledge about groups that are out of the political and religious mainstream. ”

“ The field commander is going to need not only a remarkably able tactical rescue team but also very talented negotiators. Negotiation in this situation is a specialty. If the FBI is given the responsibility for dealing with these events, it must supplement its present, largely dispersed negotiating capacity with an increased central component at Quantico. ”

“ The crisis managers will also work with members of the FBI's Technical Services Division and the Rapid Start Team of the Information Management Division regarding technical capabilities and investigative information management. The Training Division will provide instruction on the use of less-than-lethal force. ”