21st Precinct – The Ledge. ep54, 540721

Another where the audio is short, and has no ending, sorry.

Captain Canelli gets right to business as he tells us in voiceover about the day in the precinct. A young woman enters to deal with a traffic ticket for leaving her keys in her parked car. The offended woman is assured that that law exists to protect her from having someone steal her car. Captain Canelli is again in voiceover mode to tell about a suicide emergency where a woman is threatening to jump from a ledge.

Ride along with him to the action at the scene. The patrolmen have the scene at the sidewalk secure, and more emergency teams show up. How might the police keep the jumper from hurting herself, or others? Can the Captain talk the woman down, and solve all her problems? Canelli tells in voiceover some of the dangers of standing on a ledge, and the difficulties in attempting a rescue. As the distraught woman begins to open up, and talk about the troubles that drove her to the ledge, the audio stops.

Despite the missing ending, I thought the portrayal of the procedures in dealing with a suicide like this was interesting. In some ways, the same kind of things are still done, talking the person down, being reassuring, offering help without being overly patronize ing, etc. I’m not sure the cops and emergency folks did a perfect job at it, but you could tell the community concern was there for the person in distress.