Hostage and crisis negotiators gather in Calgary for negotiation seminar

Hundreds of hostage and crisis negotiators from across North America will be in Calgary this week to take part in a three-day negotiation seminar.

The seminar is open to police officers, corrections officers and selected mental health professionals who actively work with negotiators.

According to the Calgary Police Service (CPS), the 23rd annual Calgary Negotiation Seminar aims to share methods, ideas and best practices among experts in the field.

“Everyone does things a little bit differently, and we want to bring in those best practices to make sure that we’re providing the best service that we possibly can,” Acting Inspector with the CPS, Paul Wozney, said.

“This year’s presenters include the FBI special agents involved in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, as well as members of the Orlando Police Negotiators team who responded to the Pulse Nightclub where 49 people were killed and another 53 were wounded during the United States’ largest single-shooter mass killing,” a release from CPS stated.

Eduardo Bernal from the Orlando Police Department said they will be giving a presentation about the response from law enforcement to the Pulse Nightclub shooting.

“The purpose of this is to basically pass on our learnings and our teachings … everything we learned that night, to facilitate the negotiators that are here attending the conference.”

Officers from the Tulsa Police Department in Oklahoma, Fort Wayne Police Department in Indiana, Arvada Police Department in Colorado, Edmonton Police Service and Vancouver Police Service will also present at the seminar, as well as John-Michael Keyes, whose daughter Emily was killed in 2006 during a hostage-taking and shooting at a Colorado high school.