Life And Death Role - Police Negotiator's Power Of Persuasion

The caring cop’s giving desperate people hope

- Julie Jacobson

It was a frigid, bitterly cold Christchurch night as Leairne Dow made her way to the top of a city parking building.

Over the next highly charged four hours, the veteran cop would use every skill she had learned over more than a decade as a crisis negotiator to persuade a woman threatening suicide that her life meant something.

“It was very emotional for the whole team,” recalls Leairne. “The woman still has some issues she is dealing with, but she’s developed into a strong lady, is working and things are looking up for her.”

Leairne – a detective senior sergeant – runs the national police negotiating team and heads the four-person Canterbury unit, a team that in one week recently was called to four suicide attempts.

Members are specially trained to help resolve high-risk situations – armed offender standoffs, kidnappings, the March 15 Christchurch mosque attacks, and increasingly attempted suicides and serious self-harm incidents. They are all volunteers, doing their negotiating work on top of their normal duties.

Leairne recently completed the FBI negotiation course at the Marine Corps Base in Virginia. She’s the first to admit the life and death encounters take a toll on everybody, but knowing the end result can be a life saved is what motivates her team.