Emily Healy’s love of swimming may have helped save a life a couple months ago.
The former University of Vermont swimmer and current NYPD officer jumped to action when she saw a distressed woman, fully dressed, struggling 15 yards from the shore of the Central Park Reservoir on April 12.
“Her clothing had become a flotation device or somewhat – it was keeping her up,” said Healy, who has swam for the NYPD swim team since it started a few years ago. “As we’re watching her, I noticed that her head starts to dip under the water.”
That’s when Healy hurdled a chest-high fence, leaped into the chilly water, and towed the woman back to shore. The woman was then transported to St. Luke’s Hospital and is expected to be just fine.
“I swam in high school and college and competed year-round for that, so while it wasn’t the warmest pool I’ve ever been in, it’s good, and it was nice to say I have the skill set to go help this woman,” Healy said. “That’s my job, and that’s one of the best parts of my job: helping people.”
At Vermont, Healy was a versatile swimmer who gravitated toward IM and distance freestyle events as her career progressed. She earned top-15 finishes during each of her four trips to the America East Championships as a Catamount.
Why don’t we post an article about the cops who watched a man drown? Lifeguards are legally obligated to save you on duty while cops don’t have to do anything.
Police officers are not required to pass a swim test to become officers, so there are police officers on duty who may not know how to swim.
Lifeguards are only obligated to attempt to save you if the scene poses no danger to themselves or others.
In general, as evidenced in a 2005 supreme court case, NO OBLIGATION in any circumstances to help – of any kind.
Ok but that is a totally different discussion. Your question came off as why police aren’t obligated to help a drowning victim? The answer is that there are some police officers that cannot swim. Attempting to save a drowning person would would then put the officer in danger and add another victim to a scene. Anyone who has taken a basic lifeguard training or CPR/First Aid class knows that you only help out if the scene is safe and under the assumption that you don’t put yourself or others at risk.
I don’t think I actually understand what you’re trying to say – can you just confirm that this is a general ACAB comment so I can move on and stop thinking about it?
I recall seeing several articles about current and former swimmers performing water rescues on SS. I think you’re focusing on the wrong part of the headline.
What’s the better water safety message? Someone did the right thing and saved someone, or someone did the wrong thing and a person drowned? I would say an article criticizing a cop who let someone drown and offering guidance on how someone can help a drowning person without going in would be more meaningful. I taught children for many summer on what to do if they saw someone in distress in the water. It’s not hard.
not this copaganda
Awesome stuff! Thank you officer Healy!
Who downvotes this?!?!?
I think it’s the timing of the article. It’s almost 2 months old and made media rounds when it happened. SS waits until now to release it. Idk but maybe that has something to do with the down votes. Kudos to the officer!