Instructors - Dominick J. Misino, Detective (Retired)

Detective Dominick J. Misino (retired) is a 22 year veteran of the New York City Police Department. During his career with the NYPD he served in the Special Operations Division for 18 years. His background is varied and diverse. He served as the primary hostage negotiator for his last 6 years with the NYPD. The NYPD negotiation team consists of 120 trained negotiators. His responsibilities included training new members to this team and scheduling and retraining existing negotiators. As primary negotiator he has personally been involved in over 200 hostage / barricade incidents. He has trained law enforcement personnel from over 500 various departments and agencies. He has also trained officers from numerous foreign countries.

Prior to his assignment with the Hostage Team, he was assigned to the Emergency Service Unit. His position there developed into Head Instructor for Tactical Operations. In this position he instituted and developed training for the 400-member unit. He trained and was a member of the NYPD counter terrorist team and sniper team. His negotiation skills were initiated under fire. During his time with the Emergency Service Unit he had the opportunity to negotiate with all types of people, from people with mental disorders threatening to jump off of bridges to trying to talk out trapped and barricaded suspects. He trained numerous SWAT teams and military counter-terrorist teams from the US and abroad. His experiences with the Emergency Service Unit became a valuable asset in bringing the Emergency Service Unit and the Hostage Negotiation Team together.

He developed joint training between these units and established a valuable working relationship. Two of his most note worthy negotiations were: the negotiated release of 105 people aboard a hijacked Lufthansa aircraft. The suspect was convinced to allow the pilot to land at JFK international airport and then surrender to Dominick on the runway. The second, a bank holdup gone bad. Three hostages, 2 bad guys, and a 12 hour grueling hostage negotiation which ended in the safe release and surrender of all involved.