Three generations take classes from Citizens Police Academy
Members of the family took the citizens class at various times.
YOUNGSTOWN — Community involvement and understanding the role of police officers is a serious matter for one South Side family.
Bertha Clinkscale, her daughter Cynthia McWilson, and her three grandsons Marcus, 13, Matthew, 17, and Donovan, 11, McWilson are the first family to have three generations complete the Citizens Police Academy in Youngstown.
The three boys first signed up to participate in the training class at the behest of their mother, who encourages them to take part in community activities. By the end of the class, the brothers had an increased respect for men and women in blue.
“We really learned a lot about police work and how all this stuff pretty much works,” said Matthew McWilson, a student at Cardinal Mooney High School. “You watch a lot of movies and it seems like there are a lot of dirty cops or whatever, but this shows that they are just doing their best to protect your community.”
Detective Sgt. Delphine Baldwin-Casey, class instructor, said an increased level of understanding is partly what the class is all about.
“We try to put the participants on the side of the police,” she said. “This gives you a closer look into the inside work of police officers. People often get our roles confused with prosecutors or judges. I want them to understand what we do.”
Clinkscale, after seeing her grandsons go through the youth version of the class, next decided she would see what the senior version was all about. She said watching the officers at work during police ride-alongs and dispatching was an eye-opening experience.
“Finding out what you as a citizen can do in the community is interesting,” she said. “Just listening to the number of 911 calls makes you realize how busy officers are. It just makes you think.”
Cynthia McWilson is taking the citizens class now and excited to have the opportunity. She said she would have been enrolled a lot sooner, but conflicts at work prevented that. The classes meet Thursday, and she has now taken that day off to participate.
Finding time to take the class with a full-time job and three adolescent boys active in virtually every sport offered in the school was a challenge, she said, but added she and her sons were willing to do it.
She said the family had not viewed taking the class as a “family thing.” They just wanted to participate.
“I think it’s exciting to have three generations to have done this. I had not really thought of it that way at first, but it is nice,” McWilson said. “I really wanted the boys to do it first, though, because I want them to see what goes on in the community.”
Learning about the community and policing has not stopped for the McWilson boys. Marcus McWilson recently toured the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center in Youngstown and came back with words that made his mother, grandmother and Baldwin-Casey smile.
“It’s kind of freaky. I know I don’t want to be there,” he said.
jgoodwin@vindy.com