FOI Hostage Negotiators (1188-2023/24)
Request
Q1. How many officers on the force are currently hostage and crisis negotiator trained?
Q2. What is the type of training that is undertaken for this?
Q3. How many days does training take?
Q4. Who provides the training?
Q5. How many officers undertook hostage and negotiator training in the individual years between 2017 - 2023?
I'm happy to give a deadline of the 4th of March for this information.
Response
Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose some of the located information to you.
Q1. This information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 31(1)(a)(b) Law Enforcement – please see the full exemption explanation below.
Q2. Training consists of attending a residential course which includes assessed role plays.
Q3. The National Crisis Negotiator Course is two weeks long.
Q4. Training is provided by various UK Police Forces – further information to this question is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 31(1)(a)(b) Law Enforcement – please see the full exemption explanation below.
Q5. The number of North Yorkshire Police officers who have undertaken hostage and negotiator training from 2017 to 2023 per year:
2017 - 0
2018 - 2
2019 - 2
2020 - 6
2021 - 0
2022 - 2
2023 - 3
Exemption Explanation
Section 31 – Law Enforcement
Harm
The FOI Act is ‘applicant blind’. This means that we cannot, and do not, ask about the motives of anyone who asks for information. In providing a response to one person, we are expressing a willingness to provide the same response to anyone, including those who might represent a threat to the UK.
Where disclosure will likely jeopardise the primary functions of North Yorkshire Police, namely to prevent and detect crime as well as apprehend and prosecute offenders, information needs to be protected.
In view of those functions the tactical role of Negotiators is to deal with incidents and negotiate with subjects to resolve operations in line with the incident commander’s strategy. By doing so they provide stability and support to those in command of such incidents. Therefore, providing the number of trained Negotiators within North Yorkshire Police, along with other forces, would aid criminals to identify in which force areas the level of such a resource might be deemed as weaker, and use this knowledge to their advantage in furthering criminal activity around the force area and country as a whole.
In addition, naming the forces that deliver Negotiator training would provide enough information for individuals (or groups of individuals) with criminal or malicious intent to locate, reconnoitre and directly target relevant training facilities. This would include disrupting the ability to provide such training safely and efficiently. Ultimately, this would provide criminals a tactical advantage over the police, which could then be used to hinder our ability to fulfil basic law enforcement functions.
The disclosure of information which is likely to undermine the Police service’s ability to serve the public by providing the primary functions stated, can only be considered as being harmful to the public.
Public Interest Test
Considerations favouring disclosure - Disclosure would allow for greater public awareness and openness over North Yorkshire Police resource capability to deal with Crisis negotiation situations. As a result, the public would become more informed on how and where public funds are being spent in this area of policing and gain a greater knowledge of the resources available to prevent and detect crime. In itself that can lead to a reduction of crime and give the public more confidence in reporting incidents of crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour.
Considerations favouring non-disclosure - Disclosing the requested information would have a detrimental impact upon operational policing. Disclosing the number of trained Negotiators within North Yorkshire Police, along with information relevant to their training, would provide those individuals or groups within the criminal fraternity a significant operational advantage as the information could be used with a view to disrupting training, or develop tactics that would divert resources away from locations that they wish to target. This would clearly jeopardise the ability of North Yorkshire Police to respond appropriately to criminal activity and thereby protect the public.
The requested information could be used to compromise law enforcement capabilities by decreasing the ability of the police to fight crime, which would increase the commission of crime and subsequently have a detrimental impact on public safety as well as decrease public confidence in the police force.
Balancing Test
After weighing up the competing interests I have determined that the disclosure of the requested information would not be in the public interest. I consider that the benefit that would result from the information being disclosed does not outweigh the considerations favouring non-disclosure.
I find that the strongest reasons favouring disclosure are to provide greater public awareness and openness in how public funding is being spent, and whether North Yorkshire Police is suitably resourced to deal with crisis negotiation situations.
However, the strongest and most decisive reasons against disclosure are the impact that disclosure would have on public safety, and the prevention of the malicious redirecting of North Yorkshire Police resources.
Clearly the release of any information that is likely to assist the criminal network and impact on our operational and tactical capabilities cannot be in the public interest and whilst wishing to embrace the ethos of information disclosure, this cannot take precedence over public safety.
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.