> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# SM Police unit has been busy during the last month
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sm-police-unit-has-been-busy-during-the-last-month/
- Published: 2003-04-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:05:09.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

The Santa Monica Police crisis negotiation team has successfully talked three people out of killing themselves in the past month.

The latest incident occurred last Wednesday when crisis negotiators spent three hours talking a suicidal man out of jumping off the roof of his two-story apartment building.

The SMPD received a call from a neighbor at 4:10 a.m. that a 30-year-old man was atop the building on the 900 block of 21st Street wearing a Navy uniform and waving an American flag.

When the team arrived, the man threatened to jump if they came near him. Negotiators were finally able to reason with him and convince him to come down at 7:20 a.m.

Late last month, two members of the crisis team successfully talked a woman out of jumping from the bridge over the tunnel on Pacific Coast Highway at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Negotiators spent two hours talking to the woman, who was standing on a narrow ledge, barely clinging to a chain-link fence that separated her from police officers.

Negotiators remained calm during the situation, even when the woman extended her arms out several times threatening to jump.

Two weeks before that, SMPD negotiators spent a half-hour convincing a homeless man known as “Tim” not to jump off the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway.

There are only a handful of Santa Monica police officers trained in crisis negotiation, a highly specialized area of law enforcement used in situations that might go beyond the expertise of patrol officers.

“Crisis negotiation is a tool to resolve the situation without incident,” said SMPD Lt. Carol Shepard, supervisor of the crisis negotiation team.

EMOTIONS RUN HIGH Negotiators are specially trained to utilize verbal skills to save lives. SMPD realizes that in most domestic crisis incidents, emotions run high. The emotion-based solution the individual chooses to resolve his or her problem can be changed given the right verbal or tactical strategy, police said.

Crisis negotiators are brought in when distraught or despondent individuals barricade themselves inside a building, exhibit threatening behavior to themselves or the public, or take hostages.

When they respond to a call, negotiators are immediately faced with the heavy burden of failure — the consequences of which could be fatal. Not only is there a high level of stress involved, but it’s emotionally draining for both sides.

That’s why it takes a certain type of individual to deal with such intense circumstances. Negotiators must have an enormous amount of patience and empathy and have the ability to engage distraught individuals into a conversation, police said.

When negotiators first approach the individual or situation, they try to strike up a conversation with him or her to build a rapport.

“You want to get from that person, ‘What is causing you to do this today?’” Shepard said. “You get as familiar with that person as you can.”

Negotiators must build trust with the individual so he or she feels like someone does care about them, which can take hours. The goal is to let the person vent long enough about his problems and then reason with him.

“It takes as long as it takes,” Shepard said. “Then you get them into action and gauge when it seems appropriate, then you start to switch gears. It’s kind of an ebb and flow thing. Everything is based on that person’s responses.

“Silence sometimes is beneficial,” she added. “The hardest ones are the ones that don’t respond at all.”

Crisis negotiators work closely with SMPD’s SWAT team when needed.

“If the person creates a situation for the public or the police, then tactical personnel are brought in,” Shepard said.

The 10 SMPD officers trained in crisis negotiation go through a series of training throughout the year that include drills, role playing, reviewing different scenarios and analyzing previous incidents. SMPD works with other agencies including the FBI, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other municipal law enforcement agencies.

“The idea is to keep up everyone’s skill levels because they are perishable skills,”

Shepard said.

The negotiators are selected by a panel comprised of their co-horts. But candidates won’t be suitable for selection if they don’t exhibit excellent verbal and listening skills and can show a willingness to be empathetic.

“The panel wants to get an idea of their thought process and see what their level of patience is,” Shepard said. “In training, you learn not to be confrontational and you don’t make judgments, but evaluate their actions.”

A candidate is interviewed by the panel and then must engage in a role-playing exercise in front of their colleagues. From there, negotiators go through a state-run hostage course. The course is approved by the California Peace Officer Standards and Training, which sets standards for law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

SMPD negotiators respond to about six incidents a year and Shepard said the team has never been unsuccessful. Typically two negotiators arrive on scene. One will take the lead role in talking to the individual while the other officer offers support and alternatives to make the situation come to an end.

The team was established 10 years ago, about the same time SMPD Chief James T. Butts Jr. took over the department. Butts had prior SWAT experience and knew how vital negotiation teams are, said SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega.

It was only three decades ago that crisis negotiation teams were created. New York City was the first police department to create such a model, after officials there realized that law enforcement had no system in place to communicate or negotiate with suspects or hostages during a crisis situation.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041903-03_01.jpg)

crisis negotiators successfully talked this woman from jumping into the Pacific Coast Highway last month. (Photo: File Photo Santa Monica Police)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)