Police's crisis and hostage negotiators break with operational police culture

The research commentary is based on a study of the police's crisis and hostage negotiators (KGF). The study is unique in that it is based both on observation of the work of crisis and hostage negotiators and on interviews with the negotiators. Through observation, it is made clear that KGF's success is not only about personality traits and communicative skills, but also says a lot about their ability to break with more traditional police culture. The research commentary explores how KGF does this, and four different breaches of traditional police culture are outlined: "Focus on negotiating, not action", "No focus on losing authority", "Ability to think strategically and ability to think reversal" and "Knowledge of and understanding for people in crisis". The findings about KGF's ability to break with operational police culture have great transferable value to other operational police.