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Frank Bolz

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Captain Frank Bolz served with the New York Police Department for more than 27 years. He rose through the ranks to that of Detective Captain. In 1972, after the tragedy of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, Bolz took part in the formation of the Department's "Guidelines for Barricaded Felons and Hostage Confrontations". He, with Dr. Harvey Schlossberg, selected and trained the new Hostage Negotiating Team, and became the Commanding Officer and Chief Negotiator. He remained in that role for almost ten years, during which time he personally negotiated in more than 285 incidents, bringing about the safe release of more than 850 hostages, without the loss of life. Frank Bolz was also the City-Wide Kidnap Taskforce Coordinator, training Detectives in all phases of Kidnap Investigation and personally participating in 25 actual investigations.

He has trained representatives from over 3900 Law Enforcement Agencies in the U.S., Canada and abroad, including the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the State Department, and the United Nations. Bolz has lectured nationally and internationally on Hostage Recovery, Kidnapping and Terrorism, and has established liaison with his counterparts worldwide. He has authored numerous articles and training films on these subjects, and co-authored the book Hostage Cop, authored the book How to be a Hostage, and Live Bolz most recently co-authored the book, The Counter-Terrorism Handbook: Tactics, Procedures and Techniques.

One reader of Hostage Cop said, “The author, a member of the German segment of the New York Police Department's "establishment" teamed with a Jewish psychiatrist police officer to introduce the concept of organized hostage negotiation into the United States. The principles they taught and practiced are fleshed out in the real case stories that Bolz has collected. In addition to the cases themselves, the collision between the newer practices, vastly weighted toward saving all lives in the situation, and the older lines of thought, in which prevailing quickly was foremost, offers useful insight into how some police think about the issue.

As well as information, "Hostage Cop" offers a good read for the time invested. Some standoffs are tense and exciting and others offer wonderful absurdities, often the very essence of a successful end to a crisis. If you like the big roundup and shootout, this book will probably bore you silly. If, however, you like tales of the power of the state calmed, idiocy avoided, and nasty situations brought to benign ends, this one will suit you down to the ground.”

According to the book description of The Counter-Terrorism Handbook, it “will help guide law enforcement as well as industrial and private security personnel through a terrorism situation or potential threat, including bomb threats, hostage situations, kidnapping, and negotiation. The authors group the material by chronological sequence: pre-incident, including the background, planning, and preparation in anticipation of such episodes; incident, concerning terrorist situations such as kidnapping, bombing, and hostage taking as they unfold; and post-incident, presenting the handling of terrorist incidents once they have been completed and including the ranking officers' roles in supervising police response.

On September 11, 2001, the world was put on notice: terrorism can strike anytime…anywhere…anyone. You are told to go about your daily life - but to be vigilant of your surroundings. You are told that trying to do a cursory profile on potential terrorists is futile because their commonality goes deeper than the surface. With this in mind, what do you look for in a potential situation, how do you prepare, how do you protect? Written by experts who have years of experience in the field, The Counterterrorism Handbook: Tactics, Procedures, and Techniques, Third Edition is an invaluable resource for those who recognize that preparation is the best defense in the War on Terror. Revised and expanded to reflect information obtained since the September 11th attacks, this latest edition provides an understanding of the strategies, tactics, and techniques required to counter terrorism as it exists today. It illustrates essential topics such as the elements common to all terrorism, bomb threats, risk assessment, hostage situations, and weapons of mass destruction. Find out what's new in the third edition as it: Provides a closer look at what transpired during and after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon;  Discusses the current state of WMD's, including threats from chemical and biological agents and those posed by nuclear weapons; Divulges the latest modes of domestic terrorism, including cyber-terrorism and eco-terrorism; Discloses the latest information on what's going on with Homeland Security; Covers recent INS laws as they relate to terrorist activity and how they effect homeland security.”


The Counterterrorism Handbook (Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations)
Jr., Frank Bolz  More Info
The Counter-Terrorism Handbook: Tactics, Procedures and Techniques (Practical Aspects of Criminal & Forensic Investigations)
Frank Jr. Bolz  More Info
Hostage Cop
Frank, Jr. Bolz  More Info
How to Be a Hostage and Live
Frank A., Jr. Bolz  More Info

From the History of the New York Police Department

In the latter part of the year 1833, the building occupied by the Upper Police became inadequate for the public use and the Committee on Repairs were directed by the Aldermen to ascertain what alterations were necessary to prevent those detained for examination from suffering from the cold during the winter season. The force was still further increased by the appointment of new men and the establishment of new posts in the different Watch districts.

The year 1834 may, with propriety, be called the year of riots. The civil authorities being obliged for the first time to call for military aid to assist in maintaining the peace of the city. In this year the Mayor was elected by the city for the first time. Hitherto that office had been filled by appointment by the Governor and Council. The elections were then held for three successive days, and in the inefficient condition of the city Police, they were oftentimes the cause of great excitement and turbulence. The Sixth Ward remained true to its title of "the bloody ould sixth," party strife running even more than usually high, and giving rise to a series of brawls and riots

Three months after the National Guard had quelled the election riots they were again called upon to put down a disturbance of a much more formidable character. The abolitionists were this time the object of the fury of the mob; their meetings were attacked and broken up; and the mob sacked the dwellings and assaulted the persons of several well-known leading abolitionists. The Twenty-Seventh Regiment, N. G., S. N. Y., Colonel Stevens commanding, were called out to dispense the mob. The latter had assembled in large numbers, and erected a barricade of carts, barrels, and ladders, chained together, in the vicinity of the Rev. Mr. Ludlow's church, spring Street, between Macdougal and Varick Streets.

The regiment first met the rioters in large force in Thompson Street, above Prince. The Aldermen who had been deputed by Mayor Lawrence to accompany the military, and to direct, as magistrates, the action of the regiment, became greatly alarmed,, and endeavored to prevail on Colonel Stevens to retreat to the City Hall. Colonel Stevens was not that kind of man. For answer, he moved two companies up to the barricades under a shower of stones, broke it up, and drove the mob before him at the point of a bayonet. Meeting Justice Olin M. Lowndes with a force of Police, Col. Stevens turned around and marched back against the mob, sending them flying before him, demoralized and beaten. The riot had been efficiently put down and peace again restored without the firing of a shot.

The other riots that took place about this period were the Stone-cutter's riots, Five Points riots, O'Connell Guard riots, and Chatham Street riots.

On the night of December 16, 1835, the city was visited by a terrible conflagration, the burnt district embracing thirteen acres, in which nearly seven hundred houses were leveled to the ground, with the loss of over seventeen million dollars.

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