Hostage expert's advice: stay calm

Mike Kyne is confident New Zealand police have the ability to respond to hostage situations....
Mike Kyne is confident New Zealand police have the ability to respond to hostage situations. Photo by Christchurch Star.
Mike Kyne was part of the anti-terrorist squad which tracked and shot Aramoana killer David Gray. He gives reporter Tom Doudney, of The Star in Christchurch, a unique insight into how last week's Sydney seige would have been played out.

Mike Kyne knows what it's like to go up against a dangerous killer where innocent people are in the firing line.

Like in Aramoana, there was no shortage of armed police on the scene, as Sydney's hostage drama developed at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Martin Pl last week.

The gunman, Man Haron Monis, was killed in the siege along with two of his 20 captives.

They were 34-year-old cafe owner Tori Johnson, who reportedly tried to tackle Monis, and 38-year-old mother-of-three Katrina Dawson, who reportedly spent much of her time trying to help a pregnant colleague and was shot trying to defend her.

Mr Kyne says the situation would have been dictated much more by the actions of the offender than the officers outside.

The police response would be more reactive with the first move being to cordon off and contain the situation.

''You don't want a moving offender in a vehicle or something, so you want to isolate the incident away from the population so there is less risk to others,'' he said.

''Let's say it was Merivale Mall in Christchurch - let's say someone walks in with a gun and takes 10 people hostage in the shop. Right from the start, police negotiators would be trying to talk to the person, find out what they want.

''Police have also got to get everyone else out of the mall - all that is taking place - and then the specialist negotiator would take over and the special tactics team would get into place in case they needed to assault the place.''

Mr Kyne said the preferred option for police would be to resolve the situation peacefully but a decision to try to disable the hostage taker could be made by the team commander, based on the circumstances.

''If you are threatening someone with a bomb or a pistol and there is an opportunity to take you out they'll take it - and they should, too, in my view.''

Mr Kyne said when shots were heard in the cafe, police would have had no choice but to act immediately.

Before that, he said the hostages' survival instincts would probably have been working overtime to make sure they did not antagonise Monis, although in some cases people could behave impulsively.

''If you look through history some hostages have done some silly things really with an offender but they have got away with it. There is no logic really to survival instincts - it's instinctive behaviour.''

The hostages would also have been thinking of how they could get out of the situation and with only one gunman looking after all them, it was not surprising that five had managed to escape before the final stand-off.

''I bet you a lot of the hostages [who escaped] will say `the door was open, his back was turned and I ran'.''

Mr Kyne, who now advises companies on dispute resolution and risk management, said he tells bank tellers and other professionals to try to avoid confrontation and not take any unnecessary risks during a hostage situation.

However, it was difficult to assess the actions of Mr Johnson without knowing exactly what had happened and how desperate the situation was.

''He may have thought his only choice was to try and take him on and if that was the only choice he felt he had, then good on him.''

''You can't say it was the wrong decision because we were not there but if that has cost him his life, that is a damned shame.

''The other thing you are going to be wary of if you are going to have a go is that putting your own life in danger is one thing, but you don't want to live with the consequences of someone else being fatally injured as a result of the action you took.''

Mr Kyne said the Sydney siege showed how at any time, almost anybody could be targeted by someone with extremist views, or who had lost common sense, and was committed to making a statement using an act of violence.

He said the basic elements to hostage-taking situations had not changed over the years, with the main motivators being either to use people as a bargaining chip or to make a political statement.

''Terror has that sort of impact - I don't know if you were planning a trip to Sydney, but would you do so now? Because you could have been out having coffee just like anybody else.''

Mr Kyne said he had confidence in the ability of New Zealand police to respond to hostage situations.

''We certainly hold our own and in fact we are very well advanced with those sort of tactics. If it was to happen in New Zealand, I would feel very confident that the police and the Special Tactics Group are very capable of dealing with it.''

 

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