RAID negotiators play a vital role in saving lives. But behind this elite profession lies a surprising truth about their remuneration…
The RAID (Search, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion) is the elite unit of the national police, specialized in extreme crisis situations: hostage-taking, entrenched madmen or attacks. Laurent Combalbert, former negotiator, confided in Legend. The opportunity to discover behind the scenes of this profession like no other. Is he well paid?
From the outset, he describes the work of a negotiator as a delicate art: “Negotiation is how you will find a way with the other to create a solution“. A profession that requires great emotional mastery and absolute composure, because, as he recalled, “we can save lives differently, we can do it with words.“
The RAID negotiator must deal with very varied profiles, often in psychological distress. In all cases, a bond of trust must be established, sometimes with very little room for maneuver…. Laurent Combalbert illustrated this reality by evoking a former hostage-taking at the Fresnes remand center, to which he was called as a negotiator. Two heavily sentenced inmates had detained two guards there and demanded their release. Faced with this type of situation, the strategy must be both clear and firm: “From the start we tell them that they will not leave prison, but we give them the choice of which prison they will go to.”
Yet, despite the extreme level of stress and the magnitude of the responsibilities, the remuneration remains relatively modest. This is what RMC previously reported in its investigation entitled “Former RAID negotiator: Christophe Caupenne at the heart of the action“. The latter revealed: “Salary varies depending on seniority. At the start of your career, it varies around 2000 euros per month“. Not a great salary when you risk your life but which corresponds to the median salary in France.
Furthermore, good negotiation is based in part on the compromises and solutions proposed: “I prefer to be firm on things that are non-negotiable. When I’m in a negotiation, any negotiation, if someone makes me an unrealistic request, I prefer to kill the frustration straight away.“, emphasizing the importance of never letting an interlocutor believe that he will obtain something that we will not grant him. A situation that we find for example in the book Prime Time by Maxime Chattam.
