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Featured Article -- April 2007

Local Hostage/Crisis Negotiation Team a National Leader

The Olathe Police Department Hostage/Crisis Negotiation Team (HCNT) responds to a wide range of situations involving persons in the midst of emotional crisis, or persons who are mentally ill and need intervention. Such situations include hostage incidents, barricaded subjects, suicidal people, school hostage crises and negotiating with terrorists.

The HCNT is part of the Incident Command System and works closely with the Tactical Support Unit. It has a captain, two sergeants, five officers and a psychiatrist who volunteers as the team's mental health consultant.

The team's objective is to preserve life and defuse volatile situations through negotiation; and, by doing so, ensure the safety of everyone involved.  All members have received extensive training in hostage/ crisis negotiations and terrorism. The team responds to an average of three to six negotiable incidents each year.

Two incidents involving the HCNT have received national attention. On the eve of Y2K, a subject took multiple hostages during a failed bank robbery. This incident, which was resolved without anyone being injured, received international media coverage.  A training video on the incident (produced by the HCNT and Olathe Cable Channel 7) has been requested by dozens of police departments and correctional facilities for use in employee training. It has also been used to teach nearly five hundred banking employees how to safely and effectively respond to hostage situations.

The second incident occurred on May 17, 2005. Again, the setting was a failed bank robbery involving a single subject who not only took hostages, but drove them to a local airport.  At the airport the subject attempted to hijack a small-engine plane, but was stopped after he was shot by Olathe Police Officers.  No hostages were injured and the subject survived later to be convicted in Federal Court.

The HCNT is honored to have members serve as current president and immediate past president of the Kansas Association of Hostage Negotiators. Team members have also served as instructors or guest speakers at conferences and training seminars hosted by the California Association of Hostage Negotiators, Kansas Association of Hostage Negotiators, Kansas Peace Officers Association, Kansas City Metro Tactical Officers Association, Texas State University—San Marcos, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

For additional information, contact Olathe Police Detective Sergeant Wade Lanphear at 913/971-6619 or wlanphear@olatheks.org.