On The Front Lines
"When we go to a call, what we are looking to get out of a call is for the person to come out on their own free will with nobody getting harmed."
Negotiators like Sergeant Scott Schlehuber say what they do is very real, and attention to detail is key.
"A lot of times, what you and I would think of is being insignificant is everything to them. A lot of them have just exhausted all of their ways of coping with their issue."
Scott is the team leader for the Emergency Support Team for the Michigan State Police. He leads the team's Negotiator Unit.
"Our team is somewhat unique, in that a lot of teams are separate. Teams are a negotiation and a tactical team, where ours is one team. We train together."
When police are called to particularly extreme incidents, negotiators like Scott are extremely important.
"Three types of calls that negotiators will be called out on are suicidal subjects, barricaded gunmen and then hostage situations."
It's a job that a select few state troopers choose to pursue. It requires specialized training and a completely different mindset.
"What we try to do is gain their trust and at least let them know we are trying to understand."
Negotiators are the voices of both the suspect and the police.
Every situation is unique and hard to predict.
"What's a crazy thing that has happened to you?" Cody Boyer asked.
"Where do you start?" responded Scott.
One instance he remembers happened just over a year ago.
"Our team just did have an actual true hostage situation where a neighbor had taken hostage a couple of females and then some children."
Late night on November 13, police say Duncan Willis held six people hostage in Rogers Heights -- just south of Big Rapids. All of this after killing one of the hostage's mothers.
After nearly ten hours of standoff with police -- ES Team Negotiators talked Willis into surrendering by using a "throw phone."
"A rescue phone, a throw phone we call it. So we'll try to establish some form of communication which was done in this particular situation."
In this case, negotiators managed to end the violent situation.
"Your goal is bring them out peacefully, is to give them hope," said Det. Sgt. Greg Paulson.
Detective Sergeant Greg Paulson says the job is not for the faint of heart.
"Being made aware of a situation where there would be a barricaded gunman with a hostage and getting a phone call in a room and being told that the barricaded subject wants to talk to someone…are you the person who wants to walk up and say I'll talk to them? Or are you the person that puts your hands up, walks away and says I really don't want to be a part of that?"
Negotiators like Paulson work to give a suspect more options.
"A couple of years ago, I had a situation, a gentleman who had become addicted to drugs, is an alcoholic and was kind of on that slippery slope sliding down and his life had just become chaos. He had a wife and several children. It had come to the point where he had lost his job, he had separated from his wife and kids."
Greg - along with his team - went to work. They were able to make contact with him, get him help, and it was just what the man needed.
"About a year ago, I received call from the wife who told me the husband was back at work, the family was back together. He was clean of drugs and alcohol and had been since that situation. We were able to pole-vault him past that situation."
For situations like this one and all others -- three different kinds of negotiators work in close quarters. One negotiator looks up the suspect's past records for any criminal history. Another keeps notes and helps steer the conversation. The last talks directly to the person in -- or causing -- trouble.
From the outside, it looks just like another State Police vehicle of some sort, but on the inside, there is a lot more going on just to make sure that the crime scene stays exactly the way they want it to stay.
"A negotiator is a calm voice and someone that is genuinely concerned about that person and genuinely concerned about a peaceful resolution," explained Trooper Melisa Burnum.
Trooper Melisa Burnum just began her road to become a negotiator about two years ago. From inside the MSP Negotiator truck, she says it's the dialogue between a negotiator and a suspect that can make all the difference.
"They do give the persons that needs the help, it gives them their voice. It gives them someone to go through to help understand what is going on and the reason why they are in the situation they are in."
And they're not alone. Negotiators say they couldn't do what they do without the rest of the team.
"People throw around the word 'family' and they do it loosely, but it really is a family that I belong to," said Paulson.
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