Deepa BharathIt’s hard to ignore Clint Dieball...

Deepa Bharath

It’s hard to ignore Clint Dieball when he speaks.

The Costa Mesa Police detective doesn’t have a loud voice. He

speaks softly. But there’s nothing timid or monotonous about that

voice.

It commands. It informs. It coaxes and it cajoles. And it knows

when to shut up and listen.

It’s what makes Dieball a hostage negotiator.

Negotiators have been part of the Costa Mesa Police Department’s

SWAT Team for more than two decades. It’s a job that is simple and

complex at once, says Lt. Ron Smith, who doubles as the SWAT Team’s

commander.

“Our goal and our mission is peaceful surrender,” he said. “It’s

pretty straightforward. We don’t want anyone to get hurt. The ideal

situation is when our officers and the person we’re negotiating with

are all alive when the situation ends.”

Costa Mesa’s negotiators and the rest of the SWAT Team do it

part-time, in addition to their regularly assigned police jobs.

The city has had its share of situations that called for skilled

negotiators. One of those happened four years ago when Michael

Generakos, a 45-year-old father who was unhappy about the education

of his deaf teenage son, stormed into the Orange County Board of

Education offices and held two administrators hostage at gunpoint.

Smith said that was the first major incident his team faced.

“We failed to bring about a peaceful surrender in that case,” he

said.

WORKING AS A TEAM

At nightfall, after occupying an office building with 150 people

inside for three hours, Generakos walked out of the district offices

with a gun pointed at the back of an associate superintendent, whose

hands were raised.

SWAT Team members, stationed on rooftops and sprawled on the

grounds surrounding the offices, ordered Generakos to drop his

weapon. When he moved to the side, a sniper fired a single bullet

that struck Generakos in the head and killed him.

That situation was an exception for his team, Smith said.

“We have a 90% success rate as far as negotiation is concerned,”

he said.

Most of the time, his team deals with suicidal people, Smith said.

“That’s always a challenge because you have to find out about the

person within a very short time,” he said.

That’s where the “team” comes in. Usually there is only one person

who negotiates. The rest of the team stays behind the scenes and does

a variety of jobs, from recording the session and setting up the

equipment to going on a lightning fact-finding mission.

They try to contact the person’s family, friends, psychiatrist or

priest -- anyone they can get to find out more. The negotiator’s job

is, however, the most challenging, Smith said.

“We need to talk to them in a nonthreatening way,” he said. “The

person’s thought process is worse than normal, and a lot of times,

it’s worsened by drugs or alcohol.

“If you act too aggressively, they’ll commit suicide. If you don’t

act at all, they’ll commit suicide,” he said. “So it’s pretty much

like walking a tightrope.”

It helps if a negotiator is empathetic and sincere, Smith said.

“We try to tell them, ‘Your solution is to kill yourself. We have

a better solution. We can get you help. We have professional help

standing right here.’ The important thing is, you always tell the

truth and don’t promise anything you can’t do for them.”

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

Veteran negotiator Phil Hartman says sincerity helps, especially

when you have to deal with the same suicidal person more than once.

It happens, he says.

“I’ve dealt with this one jumper about three times,” Hartman said.

“He ended up not jumping. But it helped me to have developed a good

rapport with him from the beginning. And he knew I wasn’t lying to

him.”

While the team has had a pretty good success rate with suicides,

it did fail last year when a man jumped from the roof of the Westin

South Coast Plaza Hotel.

Dieball was the lead negotiator in that incident.

“That was a tough one because I was hopeful we would succeed,” he

said. “I felt confident there was going to be a peaceful surrender.”

But the man had decided in his mind that he was going to jump, and

that’s just one thing no amount of negotiation can change, Dieball

said.

“Once he makes that decision to end his life, that’s it,” he said.

“He didn’t want our help. That’s how we rationalize it. That’s what

makes it OK for us, so we don’t have to turn into psychos every time

we lose someone.”

The “rationalizing” is part of a debriefing session every

negotiator goes through after each incident regardless of whether he

feels he needs it or not, Smith said.

“You put someone in a pressure cooker situation like that, you

want to make sure they’re not breaking down emotionally,” he said.

“There’s the adrenalin rush, and once it’s all over, the emotions

come crashing down. That’s why the debriefing is mandatory every

time. It really helps to get it off your chest.”

PRACTICE MAKES SAFETY

The negotiators also go through extensive training, Smith said.

They attend a weeklong negotiation course and an advance course at

San Jose State University. The whole team gets together once a month

to practice. They set up a scenario with actors so team members can

hone their skills and stay in shape for the real situations.

“We try to make them very intense and real,” Smith said. “A lot of

times, I’d have my team say, ‘This was just like what we had in

practice the other day.’”

What does it take to be a good negotiator?

“Mostly patience,” Smith says. “Someone who can think on his feet.

Someone who is intelligent, and someone who is able to withstand a

lot of stress.”