ABSTRACT
In the early 1970s-particularly in response to the threat of terrorism, which was very similar to the threat climate of the early 21st century-the New York City Police Department (NYCPD) and, a short time later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed a hostage negotiation program. Captain Francis A.Bolz, Jr. and Harvey Schlossberg, Ph.D., both now retired from NYCPD, and FBI instructors began teaching hostage negotiation courses to law enforcement agencies across the country. The concept caught on and very rapidly spread throughout the U.S. and many other developed nations. In the late 1970s, it was becoming increasingly clear that while many agencies now had hostage negotiation teams, few law enforcement agencies were actually encountering true hostage situations.
