page_title: Siege
section_title: Police activity
hierarchical_section_title: Siege / Police activity
caption_attribution_description: English: Fire spreads rapidly to other second floor bedrooms.
context_page_description: A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from Latin: sedere, lit. 'to sit'. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static, defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. The art of conducting and resisting sieges is called siege warfare, siegecraft, or poliorcetics.
  A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault, and which refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block the provision of supplies and the reinforcement or escape of troops. This is typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining, or the use of deception or treachery to bypass defenses.
  Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be decided by starvation, thirst, or disease, which can afflict either the attacker or defender.
context_section_description: Siege tactics continue to be employed in police conflicts. This has been due to a number of factors, primarily risk to life, whether that of the police, the besieged, bystanders, or hostages. Police make use of trained negotiators, psychologists, and, if necessary, force, generally being able to rely on the support of their nation's armed forces if required.
  One of the complications facing police in a siege involving hostages is Stockholm syndrome, where sometimes hostages can develop a sympathetic rapport with their captors. If this helps keep them safe from harm, this is considered to be a good thing, but there have been cases where hostages have tried to shield the captors during an assault or refused to cooperate with the authorities in bringing prosecutions.
  The 1993 police siege on the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas, lasted 51 days, an atypically long police siege. Unlike traditional military sieges, police sieges tend to last for hours or days, rather than weeks, months, or years.
  In Britain, if the siege involves perpetrators who are considered by the British Government to be terrorists, and if an assault is to take place, the civilian authorities hand command and control over to the military. The threat of such an action ended the Balcombe Street siege in 1975, but the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 ended in a military assault and the deaths of all but one of the hostage-takers.
caption: The conflagration of the Mount Carmel Center on the final day of the Waco siege
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP pstc3100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2009:06:23 18:37:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "2362", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5256", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2856", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:06:18 23:01: 8", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1054", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "774", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "AE0839A4B651489D995C2B55599D764B", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}