Preparing for hostage situations?
13 posts, 5 voices
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| Yes, have alot of Life Insurance on yourself, for the family. Plenty of Band-Aids for those Injuries that you are going to receive. Oh yes and tell the inmates to please use 'Safe-Sex' and proper protection on those Correctional Officers that failed to 'Run' faster and get out of Harms away. I love these 'Stupid' questions. Now lets talk about preventing a Officer(s) from getting 'T.B.' and bringing it home to the Family and lets not forget the kids, if you have any. Lets not forget 'H.I.V. Aids'. Watch out for the 'Blood' and forget about the terrible 'Smell' of the Body Odor and those Dirty Cells and Floors. I could continue, but I leave it to the ones that will be working those Facilities and 'learn' for themselves. Its such a rewarding feeling to work for bleeding heart liberals. Yeah right, what a Joke. I am glad its over and I am Retired from the bullshit. Sorry if I hit a nerve., I just had to speak the truth, instead this stupid questions and get to the real life of Corrections. | |
| we have never had any class or training at all and really outside of using my own common sense I dont have a clue as to what we would do as a staff if that ever occurred and with the kind of inmates we are getting it will happen one day and I hope no one gets hurt. | |
robolding
1 post
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While there is no 'silver bullet' to prepare for the possibility of a hostage situation, the answer is and always has been basically two fold. First there is the question of vigilance. With all security oriented activities, the constancy of vigilance in relationship to performance of duties and observation of events and potential ramifications are key. It is of course difficult to maintain alert vigilance on a day to day basis year in and year out. However every effort must be made to motivate staff and maintain as high a level of alertness as can be constantly over time. That implies a need for constanct 'reminder trainings.' Second (and related to the first as well), a strict adherence to security procedures must be made 'part of the culture.' Distractions related to 'kidding around' and deviation from duty requirements must be addressed consistently from the academy onward. Managers must be careful to assess 'added duties' on a routine basis to ensure that grandiose new ideas and activities do not overshadow basic security procedures and set the stage for hostage events (as well as assaults, escapes, etc.) to occur. Too often small disagreements and issues are allowed to interfere with the cooperative efforts of staff to work as at team and ensure that proper security remains the priority consideration. Tough guy attitudes do not substitute for vigilance and well executed security procedures. This should be a constant focus of leadership at the corrections facility level. It is simple, basic and unfortunately difficult to maintain as a focus over time. But it is also the most effective means to prepare for potential 'hostage events' in a prevention oriented manner. |
| Amen to the Retired CO. Preparation? Preparation-H maybe. Health care in prison is too expensive to pay for so nothing will change untill the rights of the inmate are reduced, and death sentence posibilities are added for certain felony sex crimes. | |
| sounds like you need to pick up a book and help yourself, instead of waiting for someone to hold your hand. | |
| WOW....that's a nice response. The constant focus of leadership should be to develop real Supervisors, you know CO's, Sgt's, Lt's, and promote these individuals because they are in the battle every day. You want to win in a correctional setting, let these folks run it, not the college educated fool who is punching his ticket for promotion or political gain. Corrections is not rocket science. | |
| No Rob I dont need to pick up a book and have someone hold my hand. 21 years of doing this job, dealing with fights, being spit in the face, swore at over and over and myself and many of my generation have handled that just fine and have WON in the correctional setting-how ever what I was trying to point out was that things have changed -we now hire people to satisfy diversity quotas and not whether they can hold their own when the situation becomes serious. And we dont provide any training for these people -and I have seen it first hand these people freeze when things go bad. And guys like myself end up holding their hands ROB!!!!!!!! I am fully aware that everytime I come here it is potential for something serious, but some people merely look at as a way to make some money. It may only happen once in a persons career but an assault, hostage taking , riot etc, but we are far under trained as a collective staff. Go read a book yourself ROB!!!!!!!! | |
| First of all, I am not Rob, and don't know who he is. But your response on not knowing what to do in situations, and never being trained in situations sounded like you were whinning, so it appeared to me initially you should help yourself instead of bitching about it. After hearing your response, it sounds like you have a couple choices. Put pressure on your Union or Administration or Supervisors to develop an ongoing training regiment by putting your 21 years of experience on the table, OR, just shut the fuck up and retire. Freezing or hesitating while another staff if getting his ass kicked is simply inexperience, or chicken-shit personality, and is worthy of a trip to the tunnel, flagpole, or parking lot. Training will not fix a chicken-shit. Like you said, your generation was not like that and CO's these days are so scared of their own shadow, to offend someone or violate their rights, and frankly most of them just have no LIFE experince. The key to turning this around, in my experience in State and Federal corrections, is the Administration. Pencil pushing, college educated weenies, politicians, psychologists, etc., cannot operate a facility using a cool looking flow-chart, or psychopolitical-bable. They do not respect the line supervisor for fear the supervisor may ruin them and their career. These people are the dangerous ones, not the quota's that come in looking for your guidance on the yard or unit. You're right, it's not like it was...some new staff feel like they are 'entitled' to everything, expect instant results, and are easily bored because they grew up with the fucking computer. You know the, 'It's all about Me' attitude. I try to train staff every day. I make a choice to write-off the flunky-don't give a shit staff or work on developing those who DO GIVE A SHIT. This is how I keep semi-sane. I intended no offense to you, I think I may be a little insensitive, as I am told. I am sick of the whinning too and simply cannot stand what is happening to the corrections field. | |
| Points well taken-you are right I need to personally mention this to our administration and try to change the tide. | |
| blow it out your porthole rob!!!! | |
Igoturback
16 posts
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Hey the guy that’s says he’s not rob, hats off to you, your soooo right. |
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rolbsned65
4 posts
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The most important issue in preparing for a hostage situation is to know what one is. The majority of the hostage situations I’ve heard of and/or dealt with have started out as an active assault on an officer or staff member. These can be prevented by acting at the time of an assault and not standing by while an officer or staff member is being beaten. Secondly your ERT/SORT Team needs to be trained in ending hostage situations. The use of force policies for your department need to be clear in these situations. Political correctness and or misinterpritation of policies can cause problems, big problems. Lastly, your staff need to be trained on what can happen to them during these situations, and yes this means the possibility of rape and contraction of the diseases we face and manage to stave off on a daily basis. The ACA is a good place to find videos on the subject as well as the Arizona Department of Corrections. While training your Officers and staff be leery of telling them your ERT/SORT Tactics for these situations. A scared officer will tell all if he/she thinks it will help save them. |
HeyCO
1 post
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Hats off to anyone that has given decent ideas or advice. Being a hostqage is not something you can prepare for. However having a union and an admin. that will ACTUALLY support you is the first step. Then forcing them to give training will help. Remember to train for prevention first. If all else fails, train yourself. Find a local martial arts club, or knife defense class. Anything. Being in the postion of having to save a friend, partner, or co-worker or your self is the worse feeling. Start with working out, being in top physical form and enough confidence to know what to do and when to do it. God bless anyone that ever comes face to face with becoming a hostage. |
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