At the close of our 40-hour crisis negotiation course, I felt accomplished and confident; ready to de-escalate any conflict that the city of Los Angeles (or anywhere else, for that matter) could throw at me.  That was on Friday.  As Wayne and I sat in the crowded office of the city's Suicide Prevention Center Monday afternoon, evesdropping on one-sided conversations between the Center's volunteers and their anonymous callers, my confidence dwindled.  I had quickly grasped the "click-down" method of communicating, and could recite the tenents of active listening without hesitation, but ultimately, what would that knowledge do for me in a crisis?  Forty hours of training later, and I was beginning to think that I was no more prepared to handle "crisis negotiation" than I had been at the start of the class.  'But, LAPD's Crisis Negotiation School is revered as one of the best in the country,' I thought to myself.  'Surely I must have gained something from it.'  And I did, I think: an better understanding of the legal system, respect for the difficulties of negotiating, and a broadened vocabulary of very academic-sounding terms.  But as far as my skills as negotiator go, I'd rate myself at roughly the same level (low).

I'm not blaming the school itself; it seemed well put-together.  I think what it comes down to is that no amount of training will prepare you for an actual conversation (you know, with a real live person in honest-to-goodness crisis).  And if 40-hour training schools don't prepare you, then what does?  "Practice" is the logical answer, I know.  Does anyone else think it may be a bad idea to hone our listening skills and empathetic expression/tone of voice while trying to talk someone down from a roof or away from their loaded 12-gauge?  Considering the current statistics on military suicide, the most applicable arena of crisis negotiation to my future career seems to be that of suicide prevention.  If, as a platoon leader, I found myself forced to negotiation with one of my soldiers in one of the situations mentioned above, I'm not sure that I'd be any better prepared because I've been taught the importance of establishing rapport or the psychology behind suicidal behavior.  I will just have to hope that, if nothing else, my exposure to similar situations will be enough to allow me a chance to "hone" my skills in a real-life setting (without adversely affecting the other party in the negotiations).