#1 After being confined to a wheelchair for over eleven years, a twenty-eight-year-old paraplegic attempts to quell his overwhelming anger with alcohol. The beautiful spring afternoon is no consolation for the man who, at the age of seventeen, permanently lost the use of both legs. Paralyzed after being thrown from a car which hit a tree, the man continues to blame the driver and the owner of the vehicle, both childhood friends, for the accident that occurred during a night of youthful recklessness. Driven beyond rationality by the combination of anguish and alcohol, the man gathers two handguns and nearly two hundred rounds of ammunition. Using his specially equipped car, the man goes to the residence of one of those he holds accountable for the accident. After calling the man from his house, the paraplegic fires nine shots at him. Two bullets hit the intended target. The near fatally wounded man is then held hostage while lying face down on the sidewalk in his quiet residential neighborhood. In a frenzy of emotion, the enraged paraplegic fires additional shots into the air while proclaiming, It's the end of the world. He then repeatedly threatens to kill the victim and himself. #2 A thirty-eight-year-old man with a history of mental instability becomes increasingly despondent over the threat of foreclosure on his government mortgage. Seeking relief, the man has several drinks and then makes numerous calls from his home to government officials. The agencies called, including the governor's office, systematically dismiss his drunken ranting. In a state of hopelessness, the man telephones a major metropolitan news station and advises them he is going to commit suicide over the bureaucratic dispute. Local police are notified and, upon responding to the scene, are confronted by the subject wielding a rifle at a second-story-window. One police officer is cornered in a vulnerable position outside the residence. #3 Late afternoon on a clear and windy April day, a distraught twenty-two-year-old man climbs the stairwell of a hospital parking garage. Upon reaching the rooftop level, he perches on an outdoor ledge seven stories above a parking lot. Unsteady from alcohol, the man threatens to jump. The subject holds hospital security guards and mental health professionals at bay and cites problems with his estranged wife as his motivation. In addition, the irrational man screams about emotional pain, death, God, patriotism, and communists. #4 At 11:15 pm on a cool spring evening, an undercover narcotics officer leaves his office on a motorcycle enroute to meet friends. Three drug dealers in a utility vehicle ram the rear of the cycle in an attempt to stop it. The carjackers then fire shots at the officer. Fortunately, a protective helmet absorbs the bullet striking his head, and he suffers only a minor injury. The utility vehicle is found minutes after the attack parked behind the apartment of the suspected driver. Police immediately surround the apartment. The preceding crises are not fictional. They are actual occurrences to which this writer has responded as a crisis-hostage negotiator with a Critical Incident Team (formerly SWAT) in the Philadelphia-Southern New Jersey area. They are typical of many incidents encountered nationwide by law enforcement officers. Over the years, police have responded to such critical incidents with various tactics, many resulting in the needless loss of life. Today, most modem police responses are geared toward resolving incidents as quickly and safely as possible through negotiation. While this has proven successful, caution must be exercised since, for the sake of expediency, authorities may be tempted to resort to deception in order to achieve a peaceful resolution. Superficially, one may reason that lying to defuse a life-threatening situation is permissible, or even desirable, if it works. But there may be significant costs, especially over the long term, if the police engage routinely in the deceptive practice of lying to secure a favorable resolution. …