“If the beeper goes, you always know it’s about life or death.” Former police negotiator Heidi Nieboer knows what it is like to be in the middle of a crisis situation, such as Thursday in Roosendaal. A confused man threatened to do something about himself and others. The DSI and emergency services pulled out and the special team of negotiators was also used for a conversation that had to save lives.
“It is certainly exciting, luckily,” says former police negotiator Heidi Nieboer. “If it were not exciting, you are not fully concentrated,” she explains.
Nieboer worked for years as a police negotiator and has been regularly used in the past for similar incidents such as Thursday in Roosendaal. “Most negotiators are negotiators in addition to their normal job with the police. That means that you can run a picket service once in a while and be called if an incident is going on.”
Negotiators are usually called by the control room with the request to contact a service officer. “You will then be told where you as a negotiator have to go and what is going on. Often the first information you get is very lean. Only when you are on the spot do you get more information.”
“It’s our goal to start the conversation.”
The DSI and the police negotiators were called up for the situation in Roosendaal. “The negotiators will have been told yesterday that something was going on in a specific home,” Nieboer explains.
As a negotiator you never work alone, but together with one or two other negotiators. Someone from the negotiating team is responsible for the spokesperson during the incident and the other two colleagues support the interviewer.
“The first thing you try as a negotiator is to make contact with the person for whom you have been called. It is our goal to start the conversation. In the case of Roosendaal, where the man, as far as is known, threatened to do something about himself and others, the intention is that negotiators know how to prevent that.
“We always ensure our own safety.”
Negotiators go inside if there is an imminent situation whether there is weapons or explosives. “We always ensure our own safety. For example, we try to make contact outside a home. This can be done by telephone or at a safe distance with our voice.”
In the case of a person with so -called misunderstood behavior, it is important to know that he can respond differently than someone with behavior that we can understand. “You ask yourself: what can we hook up? People with misunderstood behavior often want to be heard. There is usually something underneath. For negotiators it is the challenge to find out.”
Questions are asked such as: Tell what is going on, what you are planning, what makes you want that, whether there is no other option, and whether you want to go to the desk with us?
“For us it is the task to let everyone come out safely.”
The negotiators are always honest about the latter. “It is not that after a good conversation or a cup of coffee on the desk you can go home again. Depending on the situation and whether there have been criminal offenses, it is looked at what someone needs. But that is not the negotiators. For us it is the task of having everyone come out safely.”
If that is successful, there is relief in the team and a moment of relaxation. Negotiators have often been concentrated for hours. “Then you will evaluate very extensively and look at what went well and what stayed.”
As far as Nieboer has understood, the man from Roosendaal came safely from the house under the supervision of negotiators on Thursday. There she has all appreciation for “the real work was done on Thursday by the people on the spot. They made sure that it ended well,” says Nieboer.
