Raid negotiators play a vital role in saving lives. But behind this elite profession hides a surprising truth about their remuneration …
The raid (research, assistance, intervention, deterrence) is the elite unit of the national police, specialized in extreme crisis situations: hostage -taking, frenzied entrenched or attacks. Laurent Comalbert former negotiator, confided in Legend. The opportunity to discover behind the scenes of this job like no other. Is it well paid?
He describes at the outset the work of negotiator as a delicate art: “Negotiation is how you will find one way with the other to create a solution“. A job that requires great emotional mastery and absolute composure, because, as he recalled,”We can save lives otherwise, we can do it in words.“”
The raid negotiator must deal with very varied profiles, often in psychological distress. In any case, it is necessary to establish a bond of confidence, sometimes with very little room for maneuver …. Laurent Comalbert illustrated this reality by evoking an old hostage taking at the Fresnes prison, to which he was called as a negotiator. Two heavily condemned detainees had retained two supervisors and demanded their release. Faced with this kind of situation, the strategy must be both clear and firm: “From the start we tell them that they will not get out of prison, but they are given the choice of the prison in which they will leave. “
However, despite the level of extreme stress and the extent of responsibilities, remuneration remains relatively modest. This is what RMC reported in his investigation entitled “Former raid negotiator: Christophe Caupenne at the heart of the action“The latter revealed:”The salary varies depending on seniority. At the start of his career, he varied around 2,000 euros per month“. A salary not terrible when you risk your life but which corresponds to the median salary in France.
In addition, a good negotiation is partly based on the compromises and solutions proposed: “I prefer to be firm on things that are not negotiable. When I am in a negotiation, any one, if I am made an unrealistic request, I prefer to kill frustration immediately“, insisting on the importance of never letting believe in an interlocutor that he will get something that we will not grant him. A situation that we find for example in the book Prime time of Maxime Chattam.
