FBI trains military police, Polizei in Kaiserslautern

  • Published
  • By Christine June
  • U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern
KAPAUN AIR STATION, Germany --  The Federal Bureau of Investigation taught a one-week basic crisis negotiation course Oct. 23 to 27 on Kapaun Air Station. 

This is the first time this course has been held here, said Kevin Thomas, investigator with the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Provost Marshal's Office and Tech. Sgt. Benny Pierce from the 569th U.S. Forces Police Squadron. Both were responsible for coordinating with the FBI legal services at the American Embassy in Frankfurt to get the course taught here. 

"We needed this training because we didn't have any (negotiators) in the KMC due to PCS and deployments," said Sergeant Pierce. He added this need was critical since more than 50,000 Americans are stationed here, making it the largest U.S. military community outside of the United States. 

Attending the course were 24 investigators, special agents, patrolmen and psychologists from the garrison's PMO, 569th USFPS, 435th Security Forces Squadron, federal and state German Polizei, and Criminal Investigation Divisions from Baumholder and Wiesbaden. 

"It's so important that we all get this training so we can work on the same page especially here in this tight community of Army and Air Force," said Mr. Thomas. 

In other words, the Army's military police or the Air Force's security police as well as the Polizei can be called upon in any given crisis situation here, he said. 

One of the two instructors, Mike Helms, said this is normally a two-week course that was crammed into one week. 

"It's very intense and a lot of information in one week," said Sergeant Pierce. "I go home, and I'm mentally exhausted." 

Training focused on basic understanding of behavioral motivation, principles of successful negotiations and the role of negotiators during a crisis. Students used state-of-the-art specialized negotiating equipment during more than 32 hours of role-playing exercises. Topics covered the entire process from principles to legal aspects of crisis negotiation.