Body cam shows Santa Cruz Police save woman off bridge

Body camera video from November 27, 2018 shows a team from the Santa Cruz Police Department saving a woman who was attempting to jump from the Highway 1 overpass over a rocky dry spot of the San Lorenzo River.

“Initially she didn’t give me her name. Just that she wanted to die,” said Rick Martinez, a Deputy Police Chief with the Santa Cruz Police Department.

It was a conversation that started with getting just her name. Then, finding out she has a dog.

The video shows Martinez ask the woman if she has a dog. He later asks “who is going to take care of your dog if you’re not here,” adding “that’s what I’m worried about.”

“Unconditional love from dogs, from your fur babies, is something that might compel her to come off that edge,” Martinez said.

He was honored Wednesday for his actions seen in the video – bringing Rebecca, a Santa Cruz County resident in her 20s, back over the railing.

“There is a significant amount of pressure, because she’s having one of the most difficult days in her life,” Martinez said.

Aside from work with their mental health team, Police Chief Andrew Mills tells KION this skill of connecting on a human, emotional, level, comes from the department’s deescalation training – often centered around mass shooting or mass casualty situations.

“End things in a way that allows us a way to really help people. As opposed to being involved in an incident that no one wants to see,” Mills said. “All these principles carry over.”

Instead of preventing a madman from taking lives, this training was used to help a woman keep her own.

“(This is) a more compassionate approach to those that are dealing with mental health issues in our community,” Martinez said.

Chief Mills told the crowd at Wednesday’s awards ceremony that their deescalation training is now being requested by departments around the United States.