REGION: Crisis negotiations come under fire
Experts say there's no exact approach for how police should handle suicide calls
By TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer | ∞
When a police department's crisis negotiator is confronted by a suicidal person, he is taught to rely on his training.
But those in the field generally agree that negotiations are flexible and the proper approach depends on the situation.
It is unclear how situational nuances may have played a part in the case of Grant Sattaur, who shot himself to death while sitting alone in his parents' Oceanside living room in December.
When the 20-year-old Sattaur pulled the trigger, he was on the phone with a veteran Oceanside police officer, identified on Friday as Officer Scott Wright.
The shot came at the end of a two-hour crisis negotiation.
Sattaur's parents have raised concerns about the tactics used in the negotiation and want the department to review the policies and procedures governing how police should respond to people in crisis.
"There is no cookie-cutter application. It's all driven by the facts of the incident," said Bob Stresak, a spokesman for the state commission that sets training requirement standards for law enforcement officers at all levels.
A situation may vary from a suspect who is holding a hostage to an event in which the suspect has already fired shots, or a call about a suicidal person under the influence of drugs.
"Those are all the things running through a negotiator's head to attenuate the situation, and not bring it to a violent end," said Stresak, who works for the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, the governmental body that sets minimum training standards for all California officers.
"Active listening" technique
One crisis negotiation trainer said that a large part of communicating with a person in crisis is employing "active listening," a technique in which the listener is engaged with the speaker, focused on what the person is saying and repeating what is said.
"That is the fundamental bedrock of negotiation," said Jim Byler, a retired Carlsbad police lieutenant. "It is techniques in communicating to develop a rapport and a relationship. Once you have the relationship established, you are in a position to start to influence their behavior."
Sattaur's parents, Bill and Julie Hillestad, said that rapport was not present at the end of the two-hour 911 call with their son.
They said they were appalled as they listened to a recording of the call, at the end of which Wright, a policeman for 29 years, told the distraught Sattaur to "man up" and put the gun down, and to stop being a "coward."
Police say tactics "suitable"
In early August, the parents of the young man joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and went public with their concerns about some of what the negotiator said to their son.
The Hillestads took their concerns to the San Diego County Board of Mental Health.
On Friday, a county spokesman said a committee working with the board would discuss the topic in September.
Oceanside police spokesman Sgt. Kelan Poorman said Friday that Wright has "respectfully declined" interview requests by the media.
Poorman said the department stands behind the actions of the veteran officer, who is still a crisis negotiator.
"The chief of police and city attorney reviewed the policy and felt it was contemporary and up to trends with other agencies in the area and suitable for what we do in the field," Poorman said.
Reviewing the 911 call
But late Friday afternoon, Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties, said he was informed this week by the Oceanside city attorney that the department has agreed to have an outside expert on training conduct a review of the tape of the 911 call.
Police spokesman Poorman could not immediately confirm Keenan's statement.
Such reviews of the situation are warranted, said retired Carlsbad police Lt. Byler, a longtime crisis negotiator who trains others for the job.
"I am concerned about an honest assessment of what happened here," said Byler, who has read the 68-page transcript of Sattaur's 911 call.
Byler also has listened to the final moments of the 911 call, and he bristled at the tactics employed by the negotiator.
Although the department won't share the specifics of Wright's training, Poorman said that all of the department's negotiators must take a 40-hour class on basic hostage negotiation, as well as a 40-hour advanced class.
They also have hours of training in domestic violence crisis negotiation.
Still, when it's time to put that training to use in a real world conflict, nerves can fray, Byler said.
"When you first pick up the phone and start talking, it's anxiety on both parts," he said. "There hasn't been a time I haven't had adrenaline running through my veins. You have to work the situation in front of you as best you can."
Standard response
In the present case, Sattaur was alone and armed in the Oceanside home he shared with his parents.
In a transcript of the 911 call, it is clear that Sattaur saw that Oceanside police had surrounded his home with armed officers.
His parents said it heightened his anxiety.
But it seems that the decision by Oceanside police to surround the home is a standard police response.
"One of the primary focuses is to confine the individual from moving out into society," said Stresak, the state commission spokesman, who was not familiar with the Oceanside incident and said he was speaking in generalities. "There is no guarantee that (the suspect is) not going to cause harm to others, so that they don't take a hostage or another life."
Retired officer Byler agreed.
"I think it changes the approach from a tactical standpoint," Byler said of armed suspects. "The officers have to be concerned about the evacuation of neighbors and people across the street. They have to secure the area."
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
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Oceanside Police Did a great job wrote on Aug 17, 2008 7:39 PM:Too bad for this kid. It sounds like he had problems before he called the police. The police have an obligation to try and resolve this. The police were damned if they do and if they don't! Either way trying to blame the police for this kid with problems is absurd! Blaming the police or government won't bring him back. ...
RG wrote on Aug 17, 2008 8:51 PM:A commenter above said Oceanside Police did a great job. Oh, really? I think the question raised here is whether a good job was done or whether something could have been done better. In any case, I would hope that if errors were made in how this was handled, improvements can be made which could increase the chance of a better outcome next time rather than to simply brush it off as a job well done.
I feel for the family wrote on Aug 17, 2008 9:33 PM:but this was a no win situation. When that young man loaded that gun...he knew what was going to happen. (I had two suicides in my own family. No one could have talked them out of what they decided. They were depressed and could no longer cope with life.) If the ex-girlfriend had not called the police to go check up on him....he still would have done it. The Police being there did not drive him to do it.
It is telling wrote on Aug 17, 2008 10:49 PM:that the family is not seeking any money, as they well could be. All they are asking for is a review of policy by the Oceanside Police Department.
Any modern government agency would have done a review of their own after a critical incident such as this. The fact that the public is having to call for such basic, commonplace procedure speaks volumes about the progress which is needed in Oceanside.
Telling wrote on Aug 18, 2008 8:35 AM:The family is not asking for money because they don't have a case! Face it; there is one person soley responsible for this unfortunate event, the man who killed himself. Police Officers are not miracle workers. There is always the argument that, "It could have been done better...or He should have done this.." I think the appropriate term is "Monday morning quarterbacking"....I feel for the family..God knows it must be difficult for them but it just seems to me that their grieving process has left the intimate family circle where it belongs and has entered the territory of blaming others. And that too is unfortunate.
Becky wrote on Aug 18, 2008 9:07 AM:The response to "telling" fails to recognize that the issue here is the training the Oceanside police are afforded. According to this article and their manual posted on the ACLU website, Oceanside police only train their crisis negotiators in domestic violence and hostage situations--neither of which was happening here. The family is reasonably asking for the department to train its crisis negotiators in suicide responses, which clearly would differ from a hostage situation (e.g., no massive armed presence pointing guns at an unstable kid, no "fighting words" taunts, etc.). This is a terrible story of a terrible situation that CAN be fixed...if the Oceanside Police Dept. will do what is reasonable, just and right.
Gene wrote on Aug 18, 2008 9:19 AM:I don't believe a 40-hour class on basic hostage negotiation, and a 40-hour advanced class in domestic violence is enough. You need a trained expert in this field and when I need an expert. I am talking about somebody who has a Masters or PHD in Psychology.
ACLU Agenda wrote on Aug 18, 2008 9:43 AM:Once again the ACLU sticks its nose into something that's none of its business in pursuit of its anti-authority agenda. I've spent the morning rereading the Constitution and haven't found a clause that says "the police shall not speak unkindly to you when you've disrupted your entire neighborhood for several hours with your selfish behavior".
Does it occur to them, or the "critics", that maybe, just maybe, having spent all that time in establishing rapport, active listening, wheedling, cajoling, offering sympathy, being understanding, and getting absolutely nowhere with it, the officer decided to try telling the guy to snap out of it?
There's a textbook case from about fifty years ago that involved a guy who jumped off the San Francisco Bay Bridge at a point that wasn't high enough to kill him. As the police on shore tried to fish him out of the water, he kept swimming away from them, announcing over and over again that he wanted to die. Having no means of reaching him, one of the officers drew his service weapon, and told him to come out or he'd shoot. The would-be suicide-er came out.
Suicide is rightly termed the ultimate selfishness. Sometimes the only thing that works is getting them outside their self-obsessed little world for a while.
Oh brother wrote on Aug 18, 2008 9:43 AM:Highsight is always 100% isn't it? I am proud of our OPD and think they do a great job!
To Gene wrote on Aug 18, 2008 9:59 AM:So you have someone with a PhD or a Master's degree whose only job is to sit in an office and talk to a person about problems in their life. Because you know these negotiations do not happen every day and this person would have to be contracted.
This is not a real situation to have this person come out and negotiate a crises. Fact is, officers negotiate every day and have more esperience in talking to people under stress than your PhD and Master degree holders.
GR wrote on Aug 18, 2008 2:31 PM:The EASY thing to do is simply say the OPD did a great job and be done with it. The RIGHT thing to do is review the case to see if it could have been done better and improve. Sounds to me like the parents want to do the right thing.
Easy wrote on Aug 18, 2008 3:01 PM:It is easy to second guess or monday morning quarterback something that took years to come to a head. What ifs and howabouts are common in this type of event. But nobody every realizes that do they?
GR wrote on Aug 19, 2008 12:06 PM:Yep, you're right, Easy. And that's exactly why a review is necessary. Thanks for agreeing with the parents and others.
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