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search Police often train to recover hostages taken by force, as
in this exercise  A hostage is a person or entity which is held
by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as
security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a
preventive measure against certain acts of war. However, in
contemporary usage, it means someone who is seized by a criminal
abductor in order to compel another party such as a relative,
employer, law enforcement, or government to act, or refrain from
acting, in a particular way, often under threat of serious
physical harm to the hostage(s) after expiration of an
ultimatum.  A person who seizes one or more hostages is known as
a hostage-taker; if the hostages are present voluntarily, then
the receiver is known as a host.  Historical hostage
practices[edit]  The English word "hostage" derives from French
ostage, modern otage, from Late Latin obsidaticum (Medieval
Latin ostaticum, ostagium), the state of being an