SAN ANTONIO – With their big trucks and long guns, SWAT teams are known for providing muscle during tense standoffs.
However, often alongside SWAT are members of another team who use words over weapons to help resolve those situations.
“You’ll see us. We’re in here. SWAT’s in the front,” said Officer Sebastian Huerta, pointing to a large mobile command post. “Every time SWAT’s getting deployed, we’re getting deployed as well.”
Huerta is a two-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department’s hostage negotiator team.
The negotiator team often talks with barricaded suspects and others involved in stalemates with law enforcement into surrendering.
Earlier this week, the negotiator team invited KSAT to see how they train potential new members, using SeaWorld’s Aquatica as the setting for scenarios based on real-life situations.
In one case, trainees worked with their instructors, using the tactics they learned to try to end a mock hostage situation over the phone.
The script the trainees were provided was a man who was upset about his wife’s affair, and was holding his family at gunpoint.
Carefully, the trainees practiced engaging him in conversation, with the primary goal of establishing a rapport.
“We listen to that person. We never talk over that person. We let them express themselves,” Huerta said, explaining their approach. “We call it ALS, active listening skills. That’s the biggest part of negotiating.”
Meanwhile, another scenario played out high above ground level, at the top of a tower. The situation involved a distraught man threatening to jump.
Each trainee, attached to an instructor by a harness system, took careful steps toward the actor playing the role of the man.
Using their words, the trainees tried to convince the man to step away from the ledge.
“We’ll try to ask as many questions, as much as we can. Sometimes that person just doesn’t want to talk,” Huerta said. “It’s not only criminals that want to do this stuff. Sometimes, it’s normal people and they’re just going through a really bad day.”
Huerta also said someone threatening to jump from a tall height could easily happen on one of the many highway bridges or on top of a parking garage.
If all goes as in the training, though, the team’s talking leads to everyone walking away safely.
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