By James E. Duffy Criminal organizations are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to perpetrate credit card fraud. Special Agent Duffy serves in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit at the FBI Academy.
Negotiators perform a number of duties during a crisis or a hostage situation.
Primarily, they must communicate with criminals and disturbed or irrational individuals, while implementing the on-scene commander's directives by relaying them to the crisis site. The outcome of the crisis often depends on how successfully negotiators handle and disseminate this information. Experienced negotiators acknowledge that collecting, recording, and collating information become, at times, monumental undertakings. Without a systematic retrieval process, they must sort through mounds of written material to locate information when they need it. Situation boards, or incident boards, offer one solution to this ongoing problem.