Brown Hoyt, Samantha
Tolbert, Andrew
White, Joshua
Case Study: The Unimaginable: Child Hostage Situation

On January 14, 2021, police in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, responded to a hostage situation involving a 7-year-old boy who was barricaded in a bedroom with an armed suspect. Brooklyn Park PD's crisis negotiations team arrived and began negotiations with the suspect. During this six-hour high-risk and rapidly-evolving situation, officers deployed many strategies and tactics to resolve this incident as safely as possible. Presenters will discuss tactics that wouldn't normally be considered but were implemented due to the severity of the situation.

Samantha Brown Hoyt - Bio
Samantha Brown Hoyt has been a police officer with the Brooklyn Park Police Department since 2007. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice Sociology from the University of St Thomas and completed skills at Alexandria Community and Technical College. She has over four years of experience as a patrol officer, six years as a detective in the Juvenile/Community Response Unit and was assigned to the Mental Health Unit in January 2019. Her current, additional assignments include the crisis negotiation team and scenario-based training instructor. Previously she has been an instructor for combative tactics, a board member of the Police Association, worked with the Police Chaplains and been a Co-Facilitator on the Youth Community Engagement team for the City of Brooklyn Park. She had been a coach coordinator, presenter and coach for Minnesota Crisis Intervention Team for 10 years.

Andrew Tolbert - Bio
Andrew Tolbert has been with Brooklyn Park Police Department for 13 years. For most of his career, he has been assigned as a field training officer within the patrol division. Other assignments include school resource officer, general investigator, and background investigator. Tolbert has been a member of the crisis negotiation team for six years.

Joshua White - Bio
Josh White has been a police officer since 2007 and has served with the Brooklyn Park Police Department since 2010. He worked as a patrol officer for over six years prior to becoming a school resource officer. After two years as a school resource officer, he transitioned into juvenile investigations. He spent four years doing juvenile investigations before being assigned to the street crimes unit focusing on narcotics and violent crime. His collateral duties include crisis negotiation team member, combative tactics instructor, scenario based training instructor and explorer advisor.