Police negotiator who died on Christmas Eve was struggling with PTSD, family reveal as they launch fundraising appeal

A police negotiator who died on Christmas Eve was struggling with PTSD his family has revealed, as they launch a fundraising campaign in his memory.

Detective Inspector Terry Hopkins, who served with South Wales Police, was a married father of three children.

He had joined the 9/12th Royal Lancers from the age of 16 before joining the force, where he progressed to become a negotiator, his son said.

"I do not want my Dad's death to be in vain, nor do I want the bad to be remembered. Only the positive. So, can you help me, help them that are suffering?... 

My Dad was a good man who affected everyone he met in a positive way."

Read more and find out how you can support them [HERE].  

Did you know more police officers in the U.S. died by suicide than by being killed in the line of duty in 2018? Negotiators (and all law enforcement), you do a great job keeping the public safe, make sure to take care of yourself too. 

You are not alone. It is not hopeless. Help is available and you have options: 

• In the U.S., you can text BLUE to 741741 (Crisis Text Line is free, 24/7, and confidential).
• Call the national hotline at 800.273.TALK (8255)
• Cop Line: 800.267.5463

LPD Crisis Negotiation Team's skills highlighted after suicide attempt on flyover

LUBBOCK, TX - Monday morning, police helped a suicidal person get to a hospital safely after he stood on the ledge of a freeway overnight. Thankfully, that man is okay now after the LPD Crisis Negotiation Team intervened and spent 7 hours talking the man off the ledge. This incident highlights the importance of Lubbock Police negotiators during an emergency. 

"We want to make sure that every event ends peacefully and all subjects are safe no matter what the situation is," said LPD crisis hostage negotiator, Keith Anguish. 

Read more and watch the video from EverythingLubbock.com [HERE]. 

After a suicide, here’s what happens to the people left behind

Loss survivors – the close family and friends left behind after a suicide – number six to 32 for each death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning that in 2017 alone, as many as 1.5 million people unwillingly became part of this group.

They are forced to cope with the loss of a loved one and navigate uncertain futures, often caring for confused children as they struggle to accept they may never know "why."

"After his death, I cannot say that I was suicidal, but I can remember being in so much emotional pain that I would think, 'I really don’t want to wake up,'" Ruocco said. "Because you can’t figure out how to live your life with this kind of grief."

Read more [HERE]. 

AFSP Voices of Hope: Before A Suicide Attempt

Have a look at this video published by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It is first-hand, real-life accounts from people who attempted suicide. It is very moving and specifically for negotiators, it can provide insight and empathy to help you genuinely engage a subject that is suicidal.

Insight and Great Stories from Hostage Negotiator Sue Williams

If you saw Sue Williams in the street, you couldn't possibly know what an important role she plays in society. She appears to be a nice but very normal English lady, with a faint London accent. However, as we found out during her keynote at ProcureCon Indirect last week, her work and experiences are totally out of the ordinary!

She is a professional hostage negotiator, having worked for the UK Metropolitan Police for many years, ultimately leading the Hostage Crisis Unit at New Scotland Yard. She has worked around the world and now operates as an independent, working mainly for NGOs and charities who themselves operate in dangerous parts of the world. She also lectures at institutions in several countries, including the Saïd business school at Oxford.

We wondered whether there was really enough work for a full-time “kidnap consultant”, but as she explained, it isn’t just hostage situations where her skills are utilised. She is really a crisis negotiator in a more general sense, so suicide interventions, which require listening, not problem solving, have been part of her work, along with domestic barricade situations, crimes gone wrong (bank lock-ins), or persuading criminals who have been located to turn themselves in.
Read more from Peter Smith/SpendMatters.com [HERE].

Homewood PD crisis negotiator on talking a suicidal man off bridge

HOMEWOOD, Ala. — A Homewood police officer is credited with talking a suicidal man off a ledge Monday. And it was all caught on camera. WVTM 13's Marlei Martinez tells you what the crisis negotiator said that convinced the man to change his mind.

From the interview:

Officer Blackmon speaks calmly, a trait that helps him crises like this. He said, " I didn't try to solve all of his problems at once. Just small steps to solve that that big problem. And the first step is coming off that bridge.

 Read more and watch the full interview [HERE]. 

Hero police officer spends 4 hours talking young man out of suicide

IDAHO FALLS — A humble police officer acted as a father figure while persuading an armed young man not to take his own life Friday.

Idaho Falls Police Officer Bart Whiting spent four hours talking with the man, which ultimately resulted in a peaceful outcome.

“It was a very tense situation that could have ended very poorly,” Idaho Falls Police spokeswoman Holly Cook told EastIdahoNews.com.

Read more and watch the video [HERE]. 

'A World Without Suicide'

This in-depth article on suicide from TheAtlantic.com is worth taking the time to read. It shares, among many other things, the insight from a survivor who attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. 

Kevin Hines shares the following in the article:

Kevin rejects the notion that anyone “chooses” to take their own life. “It’s not a choice when a voice in your head, a third party to your own conscience, is literally screaming in your head, ‘You must die, jump now.’” 

He also challenges the idea that suicide is a selfish act, because to a person in extremis, compelled to believe they are a burden, living can feel like the selfish act. 

Yet he also remembers feeling how little it would have taken to deter him that morning in 2000. “I had made a pact with myself, and many survivors report this, that if anyone said to me that day, ‘Are you OK?’ or ‘Is something wrong?’ or ‘Can I help you?’—I narrowed it down to those three phrases—I would tell them everything and beg for help.” 

As he sat on the bus, where he remembers crying, yelling aloud at the voices to stop, nobody said anything. “It still baffles me that human beings can’t see someone like that, wailing in pain, and say something kind—anything,” he says.

Kevin Hines, who speaks across the world is someone Hostage Negotiation conference organizers should consider having at their next conference.  This helps negotiators with comprehending a key effective negotiator concept- empathy. 

So what's the deal with empathy? Here's what I had to say in a previous article [HERE]:

If we as negotiators are trying to influence a behavioral change in the person, it is necessary to understand their current emotions and behavior.  

Empathy is just that- seeing and understanding the perspective of another.  You need this in order to be an effective negotiator and you need to demonstrate it by taking your time to listen (yep, a pattern is developing here- each of the five skills work off of each other).  

Read more on the general importance of empathy here (really, I suggest you read it).

Read the full article at The Atlantic [HERE]. 

Dramatic standoff with potential jumper on Verrazano stretches into 5th hour

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police have engaged in a dramatic, five-hour standoff with a potential jumper on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Wednesday morning, as they attempt to talk the 30-year-old man off the ledge of the span.

Financial issues might have prompted the apparent suicide attempt, said a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Read more fro SILive.com [HERE]. 

Tipping Point: Find What Happened To Create The Crisis

As crisis and hostage negotiators, our role is to try and influence a behavioral change in the subject to gain their voluntary compliance. We are there to resolve the immediate crisis - not their lifelong issues or problems. 

Identifying what happened that day is part of being on the path to achieve that success. The following article from the Australian organization Living Is For Everyone could be helpful with respect to identifying and responding to the Tipping Point for a suicidal person (what triggered the crisis). 

The point at which a person’s risk of taking their own life increases due to the occurrence of some precipitating event, such as a negative life event or an increase in symptoms of a mental disorder.

Tipping points vary for every individual but there are some indicators of times at which people may be under particular stress. These indicators and tipping points can give early warning of the potential for someone to take their own life and are referred to as triggers or precipitating events. They include mental disorders or physical illnesses, alcohol and/or other substance abuse, feelings of interpersonal loss or rejection, or the experience of potentially traumatic life events (unexpected changes in life circumstances).

Tipping points can be thought of as the final straw that may lead someone who has been considering suicide to take action. Examples of events and circumstances that may act as a tipping point include:

• an argument with a loved one or significant person

• the breakdown of a relationship

• the suicide of a family member, friend or public role model

• a media report about suicide

• the onset or recurrence of a mental or physical illness

• unexpected changes in life circumstances; or

• experiencing a traumatic life event, such as abuse, bullying or violence. The diagram below shows different types of precipitating events and circumstances that are linked to the increased likelihood of (suicidal behaviour although they do not necessarily occur sequentially).

The article then offers some ways to respond to the tipping points:

• Be aware
• Don't panic
• Talk to other people who know the person
• Give the person hope (read more on each at the link below)

Access the full article [HERE]. 

Body Cam Footage Captures Officer Rescuing Suicidal Man (video)

Police in Hamden, Connecticut, have released body camera footage showing an officer's dramatic rescue of a elderly man who attempted to kill himself by jumping off a sixth-floor balcony.

Despite Notoriety of Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena’s Suicide Rates Have Declined

(PasadenaNow.com)- The City’s Public Health Department announced that Pasadena’s annual suicide rates have declined in recent years, even as the Colorado Street Bridge seems to be drawing an increasing larger number of the distraught.

...The report indicates that Colorado Street Bridge, which earned its reputation as “Suicide Bridge” during the Great Depression, only accounted for 27 of the 177 total deaths since 2006.

...The Pasadena Police Department leads a Crisis Negotiation Team that has 14 members consisting of one Lieutenant, two Sergeants, three Corporals, two Dispatchers, one Park Safety Specialist, and five Officers to respond to individuals in need, according to Lt. Vasken Gourdikian.

The team is a voluntary assignment, says Gourdikian, with no time limit or constraints in terms of number of years, and it is considered an “absolute specialty” by the police department.

Read more [HERE]. 

NYPD ESU Officers Negotiate With A Suicidal Man Atop The Manhattan Bridge

Photo: Gregory P. Mango

(NYPost.com) A man dressed only in bright red cargo shorts and work boots attempted to scale the Manhattan Bridge Wednesday in an effort to commit suicide after getting into a fight with his father, authorities said.
...Five members of the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit soon arrived and climbed the span to meet the man.
...“I told him, ‘those things really don’t matter,’” the cop recalled saying…

Read the full article [HERE].

Negotiator Discusses Keys To Job

“I made a phone call and was able to convince him to come out,” he said. “He came down and thanked me ... that’s the thing that is so rewarding.”

Cops use Facebook to talk man out of suicide

Photo: Getty (left) PAPD (right) PAPD Sgt. Nadine Rhem and Lt. Thomas Michaels (pictured at right), used Facebook to reach a troubled teen who was considering ending it all by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.