Texas State hosts 34th annual hostage negotiation competition, seminar

Law enforcement officers from across the country have converged on Texas State University for the 34th Annual Competition and Seminar for Crisis Negotiations, which runs Jan. 9-11. 

The program is not open to the public. 

Approximately 32 teams are participating in 2024, with municipal and state law enforcement units coming in from across the U.S., including representatives from Florida and California. An international team from Singapore will also participate. Competition judges hail from across the U.S. as well as Austria, Germany and Scotland. 

Hosted by the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State, the Hays County Sheriff's Office and the San Marcos Police Department, the negotiator training seminars provide basic and advanced training for hostage/crisis negotiators and personnel involved with critical incident situations. This includes police, correctional officers and jailers, tactical and special operations team members, other crisis response personnel, administrators and managers.

Teams will conduct mock hostage negotiation exercises from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday’s schedule focuses on classroom sessions.

For further information, contact Wayman Mullins at the Department of Criminal Justice at (512) 557-5025 or the Texas State Office of Media Relations at (512) 245-2180.