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In 1986, at the North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Police Academy, during classes in hostage and crisis negotiations, there was much talk about the need for an organization for negotiators. It was conceived at the local level to include those negotiators from North Texas immediately, and from the entire State of Texas eventually.
But, as with many new organizations, at first there was only talk. It was felt that the formation of such an association was especially important for negotiators because, they often find themselves alone in their departments. They may be the only person assigned to the job, and may experience feelings of isolation. Such isolation was reported not only from other members of the department who really did not understand what they do, but also from other negotiators in the surrounding jurisdictions. This seemed especially true in smaller departments. From this concern and interest, the idea was born to have an association of negotiators which could come together on a regular basis to train, to share ideas and review incidents, to the benefit of all concerned.
It was not until the early months of 1989, that the Plano Police Department's negotiators agreed to get things started. Some of the DFW International Airport negotiators volunteered to do a special program on a dramatic hostage-taking in which they were involved. With this, the plans for our initial meeting was born. Plano spared no effort nor expense to put on this first meeting which was scheduled for February 6, 1989, in Plano, Texas. The weather that year forced the meeting to be changed to March 15, 1989.
On that date, approximately sixty hostage and crisis negotiators gathered in Plano. They came from all over the North Central Texas area, and said they thought that an association for negotiators was a good idea. All agreed to meet once again on April 24, 1989, in Arlington, Texas to add structure to our organization. On that date, we met and elected our first slate of Officers. Some of them are still serving our organization today. We selected Ken Clarida, Arlington Police Department, as our first Chairman, and he has continued to distinguish himself and our group.
The first slate of officers included; Alex Pena, Addison PD, First Vice Chairman; Dr James L. Greenstone, Lancaster PD, Second Vice Chairman; Glen Brasher, Plano PD, Third Vice Chairman; Richard Gilmette, Irving PD, By Laws Committee Chairman; Larry Barclay, Arlington PD, Joel Theis, Dallas PD, and Larry Glover, Euless PD, Regional Representatives; Beth Chaney, Plano PD, Secretary; and Bill Cortez, Garland PD, Treasurer.
Since those early TAHN meetings, additional meetings have been held quarterly on a rotating basis with each individual department having the opportunity to sponsor a meeting. Turnouts are good, the training is superior, the interpersonal involvement and exchange of ideas is excellent. And we continue to move forward.
As a professional association, we have been active in many arenas on both statewide and local levels. Our members served on the Hostage Negotiators Curriculum Committee of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. This committee developed the standard for negotiations training in Texas. Locally, we are developing an intelligence gathering network for use by negotiators as the need arises. Also, we have established a formal way to recognize our own members for their contributions to our association and to the discipline of Hostage and Crisis negotiations.
Today, TAHN consists of five state regions, each providing training and education for crisis negotiations from El Paso to Texarkana, and Brownsville to Wichita Falls.
The Texas Association of Hostage Negotiators offers training to all crisis negotiators from anywhere in the United States and beyond by hosting the Annual Southwest Training Conference each November. TAHN has welcomed negotiators from Alaska, Canada, New York, Florida, California, Hawaii, the Philippines and many points in between to this internationally recognized training event.
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