(Radio Iowa) – Law enforcement crisis negotiators from around the state are in Sioux City this week to train and compete against each other in the 11th annual Iowa Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Conference. Sergeant Michael Clyde of the Iowa State Patrol is one of the event leaders. “The furthest this team is from Dubuque in Fort Madison, so they crisscross the state from the opposite corner to the opposite corner. One-hundred-13 negotiators and there’s probably 15 or 16 teams, and then there’s 12 teams who are actually competing,” he says.

The teams are competing in a scenario where a father is in a hospital and doesn’t want his dying son taken off life support. “And so it’s really challenging the negotiators to dig deep into their empathy really kind of feel for where this guy is in his life,” Clyde says. “How would they feel they were in the same situation, about ready to lose a family member. So it’s really challenging them to kind of turn the cop brain off and turn the listening negotiator brain on.”

The competitors are judged on a scale of one to nine, with nine being the best. “The judges have rubrics of different categories, active listening skills, rapport, teamwork, communication skills, and then there’s a couple just yes or no questions if they did certain techniques that we would expect every team to do,” he says.

The winning team gets a championship belt. Attendees also had case studies and debriefs from nationally recognized experts in the field of crisis/hostage negotiations. The three-day event wraps up today (Thursday).