Absolutely. We're looking
at variable factors here.
Not only is it the individual
that's on top of the bridge,
but also for the the citizens
are going driving through it as
far as our our first responders
are dealing with this too.
So those very factors that we keep
in mind when dealing with this,
obviously we want to make sure
we keep traffic from flowing
there just to prevent any further
injuries and also allowing our
first responders to work on this.
So again, it's definitely a big impact today,
especially being Monday morning.
But again,
we appreciate everybody being
patient and and and letting
our first responders work and
getting this man some safety.
Let's
talk about how, you know a loss
of life is really precious.
And obviously people when
they see something like this,
they just don't know what goes
into its part from the police
enforcement standpoint and how you
guys try and resolve this as safe as
possible. Absolutely. And and again
everybody's safety is paramount.
We want to make sure people also know
that there's resources out there.
You know, you can always
call the Police Department.
We're able to provide that service for
you or to reach out to somebody else.
There's our nationwide hotlines,
our local hotlines as well.
Again, because we never want anybody
to think that this is going to be
the only outcome that they can have.
There's always somebody out there for them.
And make sure to reach
out for those resources,
if not for yourself or anybody
else that's experiencing any
type of depression or so forth.
True brand. You just want to
talk about how DPS was able to
get the people safe that were
traveling over and you know what,
how quick it, how do you, you know,
the response and all that?
Yeah. I'm Sergeant Eric Andrews with
the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
And today after we got the call,
our initial response is to shut down the
highway underneath that bridge to make
sure we don't have anybody else involved.
It doesn't need to be involved
obviously for such a long closure.
We had a lot of our resources as
well as a lot of a dot resources
out that responded to this.
We had both sides of the highway
shut down as the subject was
crossing the bridge back and forth,
but we were able to keep the highway
shut down and to keep that portion safe.
So no other drivers were impacted other
than the the initial closures themselves.
What what were some of the major,
I mean we saw from the helicopter
that the tunnel was shut down
to the cars in the tunnel.
Yeah, a lot of times when
we do closures like this,
we find it's easier to divert
traffic onto other highways.
So in this case,
the eastbound traffic was diverted
on to South or northbound I-17 and
then the westbound traffic was
diverted on to the state route
2O2 or the state Route 51 coming
through the mini stack area.
Not only that situation, but you
guys were dealing with a closure
into two O 2 in the rib. Absolutely.
Yeah, we just had finished or we
were just still finishing that
closure when this kicked off.
So yeah, we had two major closures
in the Phoenix metropolitan
area right at the beginning of
Rush Hour here in Phoenix.
Sorry, Can you talk about the CIT squad
and their response time and how they're
able to get in and help this person
out? Yeah. So our Crisis Intervention
team is a group of detectives are
actually specially trained to
deal with individuals in crisis.
They're also train negotiators.
So what they do is they go out,
they're able to speak to individuals
and again just to let them know that
there's other options there for them.
And fortunately they were able to do
the job today where they're able to
get the individual down where he's
going to be able to get services.
So it's really an instrumental
team that we have especially when
these types of situations,
it's, it's
a great resource and unfortunately we're
able to come through again today. I
don't know your response to the,
I mean you guys all types
of calls and all that just talk
about Vps and what you guys do there
help out people with better trouble.
I'm at same services that Phoenix offers.
We offer we have negotiators and
CIT train troopers that can respond
to calls like this for these
types of situations in the city.
The city PD is going to take precedent
or is going to take primary jurisdiction
over this and we're there to support them.
They are very good at what they do
and we're happy that it came to
to a peaceful end today.
And so This is why we work together.
You know, they they're handling the subject
while we're handling all the traffic issues.
And it makes it a lot easier to
handle a situation like this where
even though we're two agencies,
our radios talk to each other,
we communicate with each other.
We're in a command location together so
that we can work together to bring these
situations to a peaceful conclusion.
The difficult was it to see these
people trying to get to work and
helicopter showed them backing up
and trying to go the other way.
And you know, everybody's
frustrated, Yeah, having
come from the private sector years ago.
I know what it's like to sit in traffic.
I know what it's like to to
have my commute severely
misoriented, I guess you could say.
And it's frustrating.
And and we again, thank the public
for putting up with us and for,
for being patient and for their patience.
We appreciate them waiting for us and
not causing any more issues to this.
So I understand it.
We all understand it.
And again, we're just happy that it
came to a peaceful conclusion today.
Sorry to recall
from there. No, absolutely.
And this just it's just highlighting
how well we work with our partners,
you know state agencies, I mean a dot
that was able to help out with this the
Phoenix Fire Department or CIT team.
And also it's going to be the jail now
making sure this individual good services.
So it's a coordinated effort,
lots of experience that's gone into this.
And again this is what helps
to the peaceful resolution.
I know people's commits were
interrupted today, but again,
we will get this individual
some help and prevent anything
else. No. Thank you folks again.
We appreciate your patience with all this,
obviously trying to provide
as much updates as we can,
but one of these things where we
really don't have much control of it
just because we want to make sure
we're we're applying the the right
amount of negotiations with this
individual for peaceful resolutions.
Thank you.