El Paso County Sheriff's Office

Crisis Negotiations Team (CNT)
The mission of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Crisis Negotiations Team is to provide negotiation services in situations involving hostages, suicidal individuals, or barricaded subjects encountered in fulfilling the operational objectives of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, or by agencies within the territorial jurisdiction of El Paso County as provided by the Sheriff. The protection of lives and overall well-being of all individuals affected in any situation, as well as the containment and apprehension of the hostage taker(s) or barricaded individual(s) are noted as the primary objectives of the unit.
The CNT maintains an immediate operational response capability to conduct and manage on-scene negotiations during any significant crisis event in which the El Paso County Sheriff's Office is involved. This response capability is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. CNT is resonsible for managing personnel and equipment assets and providing the service necessary for the negotiators to successfully resolve crisis situations. During a crisis situation or critical incident, the negotiator work in conjuction with the Special Weapons and Tactic Unit (SWAT) and have two primary responsibilties - Intelligence and Negotiations. Negotiators resposible for intelligence gathering interview all available who have information relevant to the incident that is occurring. The information they gather is used to develop a background on the person to be negotiated with as well as to provide safety and tactically valuable information to SWAT. The negotiators use the information developed through intelligence gathering to attempt to reach a peaceful conclusion to the incident at hand by talking the person(s) involved into surrendering and, when hostages are involved, releasing any hostages.
The CNT is a part-time voluntary unit, staffed by a Commander, Lieutenant, Team Leader and seven negotiators(Detectives and Patrolman) all of the personnel work in various assignments throughout the Sheriff's Office and are called on as an as-needed basis for critical incidents.
The incidents handled by the Crisis Negotiations Team require an extraordinary amout of patience, self control, perception and creative problem solving on the part of the negotiators, that is enhance with external coursed and competions that the team has attended. All negotiator have attended at a minimum a week long basic crisis negotiations course and a week long advanced crisis negotiation course. Team meets monthly in order to train and become familair with the complex roles involved in a crisis negotiations call-out. Monthly training routinely involves the El Paso County Sheriff's SWAT and other regional law enfocement negotiators.
The sucess of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Crisis Negotiations Team (CNT) depends on several factors, but most importantly, it depends on TEAMWORK. Successful negotiations are the result of a group of highly trained people supporting and working with each other with the common goal of bringing a potentially dangerous situation to a peaceful end.