The Columbus Police Department’s Crisis Negotiation Team consists of 8 officers. These members maintain 24/7 responsibility for the team while fulfilling their full time duties within the police department. These individuals have been specifically selected because they possess the unique ability to communicate with persons under intense and often unpredictable conditions.

The team is utilized for barricaded suspects, hostage situations, potentially suicidal persons, and the psychologically handicapped. Each member receives intensive training from a variety of diverse schools specializing in tactics of negotiation. This unit takes pride in defusing critical situations while focusing on the overall mission of peaceful crisis resolution. Negotiators work and train directly with the CPD SWAT team to uphold this goal.