Officers convinced a man not to jump from San Francisco’s Bay Bridge on June 15.
Officers can be seen reaching out an arm to the man as they speak with him and convince him to get back on the safe part of the bridge.
On Twitter the California Highway Patrol San Francisco said they used a combination of training to keep the man from jumping.
“6/15/18 at 6:30 PM we talked this party back to safety. SF CHP Officers used CIT—Crisis Intervention Training and MIRP—Mental Illness Response Program, training to communicate with the party.”
In the video, officers can be heard asking the man to gather his belonging before he comes back to safety. Twitter user @dove_esq asked: “Why risk having him fall by asking him to grab his stuff, though?”
The highway patrol responded that it was necessary in this situation.
“Prior to this clip we had talked with the party and he insisted on getting his things. We didn’t want to risk having him not come back over so we let him do what he wanted.”
A Facebook post of the video received 90,000 views. Below the video, the highway patrol posted a photo from another angle of an officer in heavy duty black gloves providing his arm as the man pulls upwards to get to the safe side of the railing.
The man was taken for mental health treatment, according to the post.
The highway patrol also posted about another suicide attempt from the same bridge. The post says the man was walking along the highway next to the bridge. Officers stopped to detain him, but when he started to put his legs over the side of a barrier that leads down to the water, they enacted suicide prevention tactics and were able to bring him into custody and for mental health evaluation.
If you or someone you know are having thoughts of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or head to SpeakingOfSuicide.com.
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