WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.768 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:03.768 --> 00:07.550 align:middle line:90% 00:07.550 --> 00:12.470 align:middle line:84% Here's a case study from my first real hostage negotiation, 00:12.470 --> 00:14.630 align:middle line:84% where I learned a lot about honing 00:14.630 --> 00:16.927 align:middle line:90% my skills as a negotiator. 00:16.927 --> 00:19.010 align:middle line:84% REPORTER: Well, David, at about 8:30 this morning, 00:19.010 --> 00:21.710 align:middle line:84% four people at least, two believed to be armed, 00:21.710 --> 00:24.800 align:middle line:84% attempted to hold up the Chase Manhattan branch in the Park 00:24.800 --> 00:26.060 align:middle line:90% Slope section of Brooklyn. 00:26.060 --> 00:28.420 align:middle line:84% This is a nice section of New York City, by the way. 00:28.420 --> 00:30.385 align:middle line:84% I'm in New York City one morning, 00:30.385 --> 00:31.760 align:middle line:84% getting ready to do an interview. 00:31.760 --> 00:35.978 align:middle line:84% One of my hostage negotiation compadres, one of my colleagues 00:35.978 --> 00:37.520 align:middle line:84% comes up to my desk and says, there's 00:37.520 --> 00:40.470 align:middle line:84% a bank robbery with hostages in Brooklyn. 00:40.470 --> 00:41.510 align:middle line:90% Let's go. 00:41.510 --> 00:43.490 align:middle line:90% We pull the car up. 00:43.490 --> 00:45.530 align:middle line:84% We're right on top of the inner perimeter. 00:45.530 --> 00:47.510 align:middle line:84% We bail out of the car, low crawl 00:47.510 --> 00:49.010 align:middle line:84% over to the bank across the street 00:49.010 --> 00:50.960 align:middle line:84% that's got the command post in it. 00:50.960 --> 00:54.000 align:middle line:84% Everyone has been seduced at the very beginning 00:54.000 --> 00:57.620 align:middle line:84% to assume that this is going to be a short, sweet operation. 00:57.620 --> 00:59.690 align:middle line:84% Apparently, they tried to enter the bank 00:59.690 --> 01:02.750 align:middle line:84% as three employees were getting ready to open the branch. 01:02.750 --> 01:04.730 align:middle line:84% That resulted in the bank alarm going off, 01:04.730 --> 01:06.500 align:middle line:90% and the hostage drama began. 01:06.500 --> 01:09.110 align:middle line:84% Hundreds of police officers from the 78th Precinct 01:09.110 --> 01:12.230 align:middle line:84% arrived at the scene, cordoning off about four city blocks. 01:12.230 --> 01:14.570 align:middle line:84% No one's been moving in or out of this area 01:14.570 --> 01:17.990 align:middle line:84% except for the police since 8:30 this morning, which 01:17.990 --> 01:20.350 align:middle line:90% is about 5 and 1/2 hours now. 01:20.350 --> 01:23.210 align:middle line:84% A police tactical squad is on the scene, as well as a police 01:23.210 --> 01:23.990 align:middle line:90% chopper. 01:23.990 --> 01:27.140 align:middle line:84% The FBI and the NYPD have established contact 01:27.140 --> 01:28.960 align:middle line:90% with the alleged robbers. 01:28.960 --> 01:32.210 align:middle line:84% The three bank employees are OK as far as we know. 01:32.210 --> 01:34.310 align:middle line:84% Police are looking for a peaceful resolution 01:34.310 --> 01:37.160 align:middle line:84% to this hostage drama unfolding right now. 01:37.160 --> 01:39.190 align:middle line:90% Reporting live in New York. 01:39.190 --> 01:42.830 align:middle line:84% We got the actual recordings from the Chase Manhattan Bank 01:42.830 --> 01:44.420 align:middle line:90% robbery hostage taking. 01:44.420 --> 01:47.120 align:middle line:84% We're going to go through when I came onto the phone. 01:47.120 --> 01:49.380 align:middle line:84% I was the second negotiator on the phone. 01:49.380 --> 01:53.420 align:middle line:84% I'd been given some guidance-- some guidelines to follow, 01:53.420 --> 01:55.782 align:middle line:84% and I was ready with my process-- 01:55.782 --> 01:56.990 align:middle line:90% I was ready with the process. 01:56.990 --> 01:58.073 align:middle line:90% And this is what happened. 01:58.073 --> 02:29.280 align:middle line:90% 02:29.280 --> 02:33.910 align:middle line:84% So what I've just started with is 02:33.910 --> 02:39.550 align:middle line:84% I'm already using a version of the late night FM DJ voice. 02:39.550 --> 02:41.200 align:middle line:84% I'm making a point to downward inflect 02:41.200 --> 02:42.730 align:middle line:90% with everything that I say. 02:42.730 --> 02:46.870 align:middle line:84% The other thing I've just done is I've created my identity. 02:46.870 --> 02:49.430 align:middle line:84% All I did was said, this is Chris, 02:49.430 --> 02:51.400 align:middle line:84% you're going to be talking to me now. 02:51.400 --> 02:53.080 align:middle line:90% Joe's gone. 02:53.080 --> 02:54.820 align:middle line:84% Now, our control-oriented negotiator 02:54.820 --> 02:56.780 align:middle line:84% over on the other side, his voice 02:56.780 --> 02:58.632 align:middle line:90% has just come up a little bit. 02:58.632 --> 03:00.340 align:middle line:84% He's a little rattled and he doesn't know 03:00.340 --> 03:01.465 align:middle line:90% exactly what to do with it. 03:01.465 --> 03:14.350 align:middle line:90% 03:14.350 --> 03:20.060 align:middle line:84% Now, what he's done is this is the first time that we've heard 03:20.060 --> 03:24.230 align:middle line:90% from a hostage the entire day. 03:24.230 --> 03:25.710 align:middle line:90% Now, he's not out of moves yet. 03:25.710 --> 03:28.950 align:middle line:84% This is a control-oriented negotiator himself. 03:28.950 --> 03:30.953 align:middle line:84% He's gone and gotten one of the hostages. 03:30.953 --> 03:32.370 align:middle line:84% He's going to put her on the phone 03:32.370 --> 03:36.158 align:middle line:84% just long enough to confirm that she's alive without actually 03:36.158 --> 03:37.200 align:middle line:90% raising the threat level. 03:37.200 --> 04:36.460 align:middle line:90% 04:36.460 --> 04:39.180 align:middle line:84% So at this point again, notice, I'm 04:39.180 --> 04:41.730 align:middle line:84% not really trying to hammer him a lot with his name. 04:41.730 --> 04:44.940 align:middle line:84% As a matter of fact, Billy is not his name. 04:44.940 --> 04:46.220 align:middle line:90% He wouldn't give us a name. 04:46.220 --> 04:47.970 align:middle line:84% That's just a name we came up with earlier 04:47.970 --> 04:50.432 align:middle line:84% to try to personalize him to us, and vise versa. 04:50.432 --> 04:52.140 align:middle line:84% And what we've got at this point in time, 04:52.140 --> 04:56.273 align:middle line:84% we've narrowed down that the van outside is probably his. 04:56.273 --> 04:57.690 align:middle line:84% We've gone to his neighborhood, we 04:57.690 --> 04:59.457 align:middle line:90% found somebody that knew him. 04:59.457 --> 05:01.290 align:middle line:84% We brought him to the scene, listened to him 05:01.290 --> 05:03.700 align:middle line:84% talk on the phone and said, is this the same guy 05:03.700 --> 05:04.950 align:middle line:90% that you know to own this van? 05:04.950 --> 05:07.620 align:middle line:84% So we got a voice identification on him. 05:07.620 --> 05:09.900 align:middle line:90% We already know who's inside. 05:09.900 --> 05:12.330 align:middle line:84% What I want to do is brace him with this 05:12.330 --> 05:15.750 align:middle line:84% in a way that doesn't cause a volatile reaction because he's 05:15.750 --> 05:17.790 align:middle line:90% still got hostages inside. 05:17.790 --> 05:20.388 align:middle line:84% As far as we know, he's still got guns inside. 05:20.388 --> 05:22.180 align:middle line:84% We don't know for sure what's going on yet. 05:22.180 --> 06:12.200 align:middle line:90% 06:12.200 --> 06:14.600 align:middle line:84% Now, he is all over the place right now. 06:14.600 --> 06:17.660 align:middle line:84% I am being completely surprised by most of the things 06:17.660 --> 06:19.573 align:middle line:84% that he's saying at this point in time. 06:19.573 --> 06:20.990 align:middle line:84% And the majority of what I'm doing 06:20.990 --> 06:24.830 align:middle line:84% is mirroring, which, again, this is how it's so useful to you 06:24.830 --> 06:27.860 align:middle line:84% if you've got this as a skill in your repertoire 06:27.860 --> 06:29.660 align:middle line:84% because you can be caught off guard by what 06:29.660 --> 06:31.278 align:middle line:90% the other person is saying. 06:31.278 --> 06:33.320 align:middle line:84% And you just start repeating what they're saying, 06:33.320 --> 06:35.030 align:middle line:84% mirroring it, and they keep talking. 06:35.030 --> 06:37.410 align:middle line:84% Now, this is a control freak negotiator. 06:37.410 --> 06:39.440 align:middle line:84% He's been completely control-oriented 06:39.440 --> 06:40.930 align:middle line:90% from the very beginning. 06:40.930 --> 06:43.340 align:middle line:84% And he catches himself babbling all over the place, 06:43.340 --> 06:44.990 align:middle line:84% and these are the critical issues 06:44.990 --> 06:48.110 align:middle line:84% that end up getting the getaway driver identified, arrested, 06:48.110 --> 06:51.530 align:middle line:84% and convicted because he's blurting this stuff out 06:51.530 --> 06:53.890 align:middle line:84% uncontrollably because the mirroring is bringing it out 06:53.890 --> 06:54.390 align:middle line:90% of him. 06:54.390 --> 07:21.250 align:middle line:90% 07:21.250 --> 07:24.000 align:middle line:84% I did something really good and then something really stupid 07:24.000 --> 07:26.880 align:middle line:90% right after. 07:26.880 --> 07:29.600 align:middle line:84% I said it's registered to a Chris Watts. 07:29.600 --> 07:30.930 align:middle line:90% And he says, OK. 07:30.930 --> 07:32.040 align:middle line:90% That was just a statement. 07:32.040 --> 07:33.780 align:middle line:90% That was just an observation. 07:33.780 --> 07:35.940 align:middle line:84% In sum and substance, he's almost completely 07:35.940 --> 07:38.290 align:middle line:84% admitted to who he is at this point in time. 07:38.290 --> 07:44.380 align:middle line:84% And I had him on the ropes and if I had just said to him, 07:44.380 --> 07:47.135 align:middle line:84% I know this is you, with a downward inflecting voice, 07:47.135 --> 07:49.510 align:middle line:84% I think the chances are very good that he would admit it. 07:49.510 --> 08:01.650 align:middle line:90% 08:01.650 --> 08:06.270 align:middle line:84% Now we got a brand new bad guy on the phone. 08:06.270 --> 08:10.290 align:middle line:84% Our first bank robber is rattled just enough, 08:10.290 --> 08:15.390 align:middle line:84% and as a control freak guy, he hasn't erupted in anger, 08:15.390 --> 08:18.060 align:middle line:84% but he's smart enough to know that he's out of control. 08:18.060 --> 08:20.940 align:middle line:84% And to this day, I don't know exactly why they handed 08:20.940 --> 08:23.670 align:middle line:84% the phone off, but he has handed the phone off 08:23.670 --> 08:27.230 align:middle line:84% to his only other colleague on the inside, 08:27.230 --> 08:30.490 align:middle line:90% his cohort, his fellow bad guy. 08:30.490 --> 08:34.240 align:middle line:84% And his fellow bank robber, who actually 08:34.240 --> 08:36.940 align:middle line:84% didn't expect to be robbing a bank today, 08:36.940 --> 08:39.520 align:middle line:84% he went out thinking they were going to burglarize a cash 08:39.520 --> 08:41.350 align:middle line:84% machine, suddenly he found himself 08:41.350 --> 08:43.440 align:middle line:84% in the middle of a bank robbery with hostages 08:43.440 --> 08:45.892 align:middle line:84% when he thought they were just going to steal some money. 08:45.892 --> 08:47.350 align:middle line:84% And they find themselves surrounded 08:47.350 --> 08:51.600 align:middle line:84% by the seventh largest standing army in the world, the NYPD. 08:51.600 --> 08:53.530 align:middle line:84% And this guy's got a genuine concern 08:53.530 --> 08:55.080 align:middle line:90% about getting out of here alive. 08:55.080 --> 08:56.680 align:middle line:84% But he's got a whole different set of concerns, 08:56.680 --> 08:58.847 align:middle line:84% and it's up to me to hear what he's actually saying. 08:58.847 --> 11:33.210 align:middle line:90% 11:33.210 --> 11:35.780 align:middle line:84% Here's the guy begging to make a deal. 11:35.780 --> 11:37.560 align:middle line:84% Now, I'm trying to label him as much as I 11:37.560 --> 11:39.210 align:middle line:90% can as we're going on here. 11:39.210 --> 11:43.953 align:middle line:84% I'm not hitting the labels in the exact form, and I'm still-- 11:43.953 --> 11:45.620 align:middle line:84% this is still early enough in my career, 11:45.620 --> 11:47.820 align:middle line:84% I'm still a little yes-addicted, this 11:47.820 --> 11:49.960 align:middle line:90% is very frustrating, isn't it? 11:49.960 --> 11:51.420 align:middle line:84% But he doesn't know how to get out. 11:51.420 --> 11:52.545 align:middle line:90% It's a legitimate question. 11:52.545 --> 11:54.270 align:middle line:90% How do I get out of this? 11:54.270 --> 11:57.370 align:middle line:84% He wants to show that he hasn't hurt anybody. 11:57.370 --> 13:22.092 align:middle line:90% 13:22.092 --> 13:23.430 align:middle line:90% Boom. 13:23.430 --> 13:25.430 align:middle line:90% He just agreed to come out. 13:25.430 --> 13:28.460 align:middle line:84% So we go into a bit of a scramble at this point in time 13:28.460 --> 13:33.980 align:middle line:84% because, by and large, face to face surrenders are dangerous. 13:33.980 --> 13:36.860 align:middle line:84% When I got on the phone as a second negotiator, 13:36.860 --> 13:40.600 align:middle line:84% we'd already been stalemated for about five hours. 13:40.600 --> 13:44.180 align:middle line:84% Once I take another approach, some tact 13:44.180 --> 13:46.060 align:middle line:84% is given to me by my colleagues-- 13:46.060 --> 13:48.850 align:middle line:84% downward inflecting voice, controlling 13:48.850 --> 13:51.970 align:middle line:84% the end in a positive way, and genuinely 13:51.970 --> 13:53.740 align:middle line:90% understanding the other side. 13:53.740 --> 13:56.530 align:middle line:84% We've got a surrender about 90 minutes later. 13:56.530 --> 13:59.050 align:middle line:84% These sorts of approaches, the willingness 13:59.050 --> 14:01.300 align:middle line:84% to make mistakes but have an overall approach that you 14:01.300 --> 14:04.870 align:middle line:84% know is sound gets you to the outcome as soon as possible. 14:04.870 --> 14:07.330 align:middle line:84% So ultimately, how does this all get resolved? 14:07.330 --> 14:08.813 align:middle line:84% I get the second bank robber out. 14:08.813 --> 14:10.480 align:middle line:84% He comes out, tells us everything that's 14:10.480 --> 14:12.280 align:middle line:90% going on inside the bank. 14:12.280 --> 14:15.070 align:middle line:84% Our control freak negotiator is still inside. 14:15.070 --> 14:17.650 align:middle line:84% He's determined not to do what we want, but also doesn't want 14:17.650 --> 14:19.210 align:middle line:90% to get into any more trouble. 14:19.210 --> 14:21.850 align:middle line:84% So our next negotiator comes on the phone, starts talking 14:21.850 --> 14:24.070 align:middle line:90% about getting him to surrender. 14:24.070 --> 14:26.860 align:middle line:84% Eventually, he starts releasing hostages. 14:26.860 --> 14:28.360 align:middle line:84% We finally get down to it's just him 14:28.360 --> 14:30.430 align:middle line:84% and one other hostage on the inside. 14:30.430 --> 14:32.340 align:middle line:84% And since he's determined to not give us 14:32.340 --> 14:34.840 align:middle line:84% what we want while we're trying to get the last hostage out, 14:34.840 --> 14:37.290 align:middle line:90% he volunteers to come out. 14:37.290 --> 14:40.380 align:middle line:84% This was long enough ago that by this point in time, 14:40.380 --> 14:43.300 align:middle line:84% he's had the opportunity to serve his time in jail. 14:43.300 --> 14:45.150 align:middle line:84% I have no idea what's happened to him. 14:45.150 --> 14:47.910 align:middle line:84% I do know that they found all the money in the walls 14:47.910 --> 14:49.620 align:middle line:90% and he didn't get any of it. 14:49.620 --> 14:54.564 align:middle line:84% And our bank robber was, in fact, Chris Watts. 14:54.564 --> 14:57.903 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 14:57.903 --> 15:00.290 align:middle line:90% 15:00.290 --> 15:03.620 align:middle line:84% One of the key factors in the Chase Manhattan Bank robbery 15:03.620 --> 15:06.260 align:middle line:84% hostage-taking was the use of pronouns 15:06.260 --> 15:08.810 align:middle line:90% by our first hostage-taker. 15:08.810 --> 15:12.430 align:middle line:84% He wanted to use plural pronouns all the time. 15:12.430 --> 15:16.390 align:middle line:84% He was always talking about we, they, and them, us. 15:16.390 --> 15:20.660 align:middle line:84% He made it seem like he didn't have any power. 15:20.660 --> 15:23.480 align:middle line:84% That was intentional on his part because he was the decision 15:23.480 --> 15:24.113 align:middle line:90% maker. 15:24.113 --> 15:26.030 align:middle line:84% And he didn't want to be backed into a corner. 15:26.030 --> 15:28.238 align:middle line:84% And if he were to admit that he had as much influence 15:28.238 --> 15:31.430 align:middle line:84% as he did, then we could try to force him into a deal. 15:31.430 --> 15:34.400 align:middle line:84% And he knew that, so he kept putting responsibility 15:34.400 --> 15:37.040 align:middle line:84% for what was going on on they and them 15:37.040 --> 15:39.110 align:middle line:84% and the other guys and how dangerous they were. 15:39.110 --> 15:41.750 align:middle line:84% We see that a lot in the business world 15:41.750 --> 15:45.150 align:middle line:84% among shrewd, powerful negotiators. 15:45.150 --> 15:46.910 align:middle line:84% If somebody is at the negotiating table 15:46.910 --> 15:49.340 align:middle line:84% and they keep talking about their board and the rest 15:49.340 --> 15:53.030 align:middle line:84% of their team and they even say they're not the decision maker, 15:53.030 --> 15:56.240 align:middle line:84% they're important, they're hiding that from us. 15:56.240 --> 15:58.910 align:middle line:84% Conversely, the person who's at the table and he's 15:58.910 --> 16:01.040 align:middle line:90% in love with singular pronouns-- 16:01.040 --> 16:05.090 align:middle line:84% I, me, my-- that's the only time they get to use those words. 16:05.090 --> 16:06.500 align:middle line:84% They don't get to use those words 16:06.500 --> 16:09.840 align:middle line:84% when they're back in the office because nobody listens to them. 16:09.840 --> 16:11.870 align:middle line:84% So if they're in love with singular pronouns-- 16:11.870 --> 16:13.220 align:middle line:90% I, me, and my-- 16:13.220 --> 16:16.750 align:middle line:84% they're not that influential on their side of the table.