NYPD Announces the Launch of a New Podcast

October 19, 2022

True stories of the department’s Hostage Negotiation Team, told by the negotiators themselves

The first episode of “Talk to Me,” a podcast on how the NYPD invented hostage negotiations in the early 1970s, was released today. The series was written and narrated by Edward Conlon, a former detective and current NYPD communications officer. It has been produced in partnership with XG Productions and will be distributed by Podcast One. “Talk to Me” was co-produced by the New York City Police Foundation.

Weeks after the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the NYPD developed a radical new plan to respond to hostage crises. When a one-time traffic cop with a Ph.D. in psychology recommended an approach of communication and restraint, many of his fellow officers were opposed. It seemed to them like a lot of “doing nothing.” But after the world’s first hostage negotiation team handled hundreds of incidents through the ensuing decade without a single casualty, the skeptics were won over. In long-form narratives, “Talk to Me” presents true stories of bank robberies, hijackings, and domestic disputes, told by the negotiators themselves.

Detective Harvey Schlossberg developed the ideas behind the new model for negotiations, and Captain Frank Bolz led the Hostage Negotiation Team for its first nine years. Together, they trained hundreds of agencies all over the world. Their insightful and compassionate approach also lay the groundwork for other forms of de-escalation and conflict resolution that police agencies have adopted as a routine part of community engagement.

“Talk to Me” consists of 27 episodes which will be released weekly. It is available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.

###