Harbor patrol ready to tackle situations on land and sea
An arm of the SMPD, the specialized unit patrols the bay, beach and pier The Santa Monica Pier is flanked on both ends with specialized police units, but a different kind of authority exists at what’s known as the end of the line.
The harbor patrol, a division of the Santa Monica Police Department, is stationed at the end of the pier to watch over the bay, the beach and just about everything around it.
The group of more than a dozen men, who are not sworn officers, often find themselves in just as dangerous situations as officers on the street. While harbor patrol officers don’t go through the SMPD’s rigorous police academy, they are trained year-round in specialized areas because their jobs put them in a variety of roles.
Harbor patrol officers typically are first responders to tragedies at sea, including plane crashes, boat rescues and drowning incidents.
The more prevalent harbor patrol rescues are the dozens of suicide attempts by people who jump off the pier. The harbor patrol headquarters are manned 24 hours a day so when someone takes a leap into the water, there is always an officer on hand ready to make the plunge 25 feet down to the icy and unforgiving waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The latest rescue was just six days ago when harbor patrol officers had to jump into 58 degree water at 8:50 p.m. on Sunday after they received a report of a man in the water, clinging to a pier piling. He was rescued in three-foot high surf in stormy conditions, according to Harbor Patrol Officer Dave Finley.
There are at least a dozen people a year who either attempt or commit suicide by jumping off the pier.
SMPD Sgt. Steven Heineman, who oversees the unit, said he remembers five attempted suicides in just a month.
But a lot more suicides would happen if the harbor patrol wasn’t stationed at the end of the pier.
“There have been numerous people we’ve prevented from jumping,” said veteran Harbor Patrol Officer Wayne Salkoski, who has been at the pier for 26 years. “If we weren’t here, there would be a lot of successful suicides.”
Harbor patrol officers often become negotiators with people who are mentally distraught. Sometimes people will alert the patrol that a person is contemplating the jump, and other times officers see the jumper themselves.
“You are going to try to talk to them first,” Salkoski said. “If they look despondent, we try to prevent them from jumping. You stay away if they aren’t cooperative.”
The result of a failed negotiation can have dangerous consequences. Officers in the water sometimes have to be forceful in their rescue attempts when the person fights back. And if it’s in the middle of the night in bad weather, it can be a life or death situation for the officers.
Salkoski remembers one suicide attempt when he watched a man talk on his cell phone with his wife, hand the phone to a nearby fisherman and jump. Salkoski and officer Matt Anderson launched the harbor patrol boat while officer Finley jumped in. The man was unconscious and taken to shore, where he was treated.
While people falling off the pier is less common, the harbor patrol still has to make dramatic rescues from time to time. Harbor patrol officers Jaime Morado and Donald Davis saved a man’s life last month after he fell off the pier at 3 a.m. while he was drunk. The 24-year-old Latino man was being thrashed around in high surf in stormy weather when Morado and Davis jumped in and pulled him to safety.
“They don’t want to be rescued, and it can be really dangerous,” — Salkoski said
“We’ve made some spectacular rescues out here, and we’ve worked our butts off to make them,” said Harbor Patrol Officer Tom Brierley. “We have a lot of talents, a lot of skills and a lot of responsibilities.”
People routinely jump off the pier for kicks, despite that it’s a misdemeanor to do so. Heineman remembers an incident this past summer when a man from New Zealand barreled down the pier on a rented bike and flipped off the end of the pier.
He was greeted by harbor patrol officers as he walked up the ladder.
“He had a crash helmet on with an American flag and was fully clothed,” Heineman said. “My first thought was he’s a 918 (mentally distraught) and not all there.”
It turns out the foreigner and his vacationing friends are big fans of the T.V. show “Jackass” and were inspired to film the incident so when they went back home they had highlights from the trip.
“They go back to the pub and show it to their buddies and laugh about it,” Heineman said.
As the function of the pier has changed, so has the role of the harbor patrol. In the 1930s, when the breakwater still existed, the pier was the main harbor for boats in the Santa Monica Bay. The harbor patrol then was mostly concerned with providing support to the marina, including the boats and facilities.
Today, the pier is still the city’s main tourist attraction. Harbor patrol officers are constantly offering assistance and information to tourists. A requirement for harbor patrol officers is to have at least a year of experience of contact with the public. They are also trained in boat rescues, marine firefighting and are certified EMTs and underwater divers. They are continually re-training themselves with other agencies that they assist, including the Coast Guard, the Los Angeles County Lifeguard, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Santa Monica Fire Department and the SMPD.
Because their jobs are so varied and specialized, harbor patrol officers often times find themselves in situations that require immediate response before other agencies can get there. And while its role is to assist other agencies, if there is a fire on the pier, a car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway, an animal or a boat rescue to be made at sea or a plane crash to respond to, the harbor patrol is the first unit on scene. A harbor patrol boat and sea-doos are docked at the pier most of the year, which allow officers to move quickly up and down the coast.
“Any problem out here that arises, we handle it or get it handled,” Brierley said.
The harbor patrol also keeps the peace on the pier among the performers, tourists and locals. The harbor patrol is highly visible with the public and even though they aren’t sworn SMPD officers, they look as if they are.
“It’s a fine line for the officers because they are dressed like sworn officers but don’t have the same training and a lot of times they happen upon something,” Heineman said. “It can be a difficult situation.”
It can be especially difficult when the incident is criminal and harbor patrol officers must make quick decisions before calling for back up from the SMPD.
Brierley, who has been with the harbor patrol for eight years, said there are areas of the beach that can be extremely dangerous, especially at night. One of them is under the pier, which has an extensive underground tunneling system where transients and criminals hang out. Only the experienced patrol that area, Brierley said.
“At night, we do things in partners,” he said. “There are parts of the pier that I won’t take new officers to.”
Heineman, a SMPD officer who has worked in the vice unit, as well as day patrol, came to the harbor patrol more than a year ago. He said he has never seen such a group of men work so well together.
“I’m very impressed with how well these guys trust and work with each other,” he said from his office that offers million-dollar views of the Pacific Ocean. “They do a lot of reviewing of their training and can handle the criticism... I’ve got the best office and work with the best guys.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 28, 2002. Read the original PDF.