Huntington Beach police officer recognized for talking suicidal woman down from the edge of a building

Units working patrol on the graveyard shift for the Huntington Beach Police Department have to be ready for anything. That was especially true on June 15, 2021, Officer Meghan Haney said.

“We see people when things are coming at their lives unexpectedly because things are happening when they’re asleep or at 2 or 3 a.m.,” Haney said. “We get people on their bad nights and their good nights, but we just go out there and do our best to figure out the situation.”

Others on duty were busy handling a major traffic accident and a disturbance involving a man with a machete at about 4 a.m. that day. That’s also about the time she heard a dispatcher’s report that someone was standing on a two-story building, contemplating suicide.

When she pulled up to the commercial structure on Beach Boulevard, she saw a woman in her 40s pacing along the edge of its roof. The businesses inside were closed at the time, and all the doors were locked.

“Still, to this day, I’m not quite sure how she got up there,” Haney said.

A fire engine crew and another officer were already at the scene. But they were struggling to connect with the person in crisis.

“So, I see the only way that I can really talk to her on a semi-face-to-face level is if I go on this outside staircase of an adjacent building,” Haney said. “That was the only way that we could build any rapport, or it would be just me yelling up at her.”

Huntington Beach Police Officer Meghan Haney talked a woman out of suicide on June 15, 2021.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Haney propped herself up against a handrail and leaned from the staircase so she could speak with the woman. At least 2 feet separated where she stood and the roof of the building next to her. If the woman decided to go over the edge, it was unlikely Haney or anyone else at the scene would have been able to stop her.

Once she was in a better position, Haney reached her arm out to the woman on the roof to greet her. She agreed to shake the officer’s hand but remained pensive and gave only brief responses as they spoke.

“I’m looking down and ... if I were to step off it would be a two-story drop,” Haney said. “Had she jumped, that would be soul-crushing.”

But the fact that the woman was willing to say anything at all told Haney that there was a chance she could get through to her.

The woman told the officer that concerns related to her family had been mounting over the past several years. Haney declined to go into detail about what she and the woman discussed, citing respect for her privacy.

Haney did her best to relate to the woman and keep their conversation going, drawing from department training in crisis deescalation and the officer’s own experiences both on and off the job. She offered the woman a blanket to keep warm on a particularly cool summer evening and said anything she could think of to make it clear that she was there to help.

“Her story was not too much different from what a lot of other people are going through,” Haney said. “She just needed somebody to talk to. It didn’t seem like, from our conversation, she had anybody telling her not to do this, and I needed to be that person.”

The woman’s demeanor remained distant, and there wasn’t any specific turning point during their exchange, Haney said. But after spending about 15 or 20 minutes talking, she told the officer “I’m scared.”

“I’m scared too,” Haney replied, shortly before the woman agreed to come down from the roof.

Paramedics checked to make sure she hadn’t suffered any physical injuries that needed immediate attention before she was taken to a facility to receive mental health treatment. A tragedy was averted, but overcoming the crisis that morning would likely be just one step on a difficult path toward wellness for that woman, Haney said.

“Her family life wasn’t going to change in that single night,” Haney said. “So, that’s what the really crappy thing is, is that you’re walking away from this hoping that they get better. But the reality is, their issue is a lot more ... than them not committing suicide.”

But Haney wasn’t able to linger on the episode for very long because new emergencies develop practically every night she and other officers are out on patrol. She didn’t have many chances to revisit what happened until she was recognized for her actions with the Huntington Beach Department’s life-saving award during an Oct. 9 ceremony.

That night in June wasn’t the first time Haney has found herself talking someone out of ending their own life. In the past, she has encountered others, often younger people, who had been cutting themselves or were threatening to gulp down a lethal dose of medication.

Over the past 30 days, there were 14 confirmed suicides in Orange County, according to data from the Orange County Health Care Agency. Since 2001, an average of about 25 cases have been reported every month.

If you or someone you love might be struggling with depression, stress or any sort of hardship, help may be found by dialing 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or by texting “talk” to 741741. More resources are available at https://988lifeline.org/.

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