Sgt. Baldwin-Casey reaches new milestone as first black woman on Campbell PD

Staff report

CAMPBELL

When Delphine Baldwin-Casey first joined the Youngstown Police Department in 1978, she used to pray that she could fade into the background during roll call at the start of every shift.

Baldwin-Casey, who was then 27, had joined the department just as women were first being permitted to go out on patrol. Some of the veteran cops were not happy about the changes, Baldwin-Casey said.

“The sexist things that they would say, you would be sued for now,” Baldwin-Casey said. “It was all geared to make women fail.”

Baldwin-Casey, who describes herself as “stubborn,” said those remarks hardened her resolve. She said the other officers took her on the types of calls that rookies wouldn’t ordinarily see.

She remembers one instance, when her co-workers told her to check-out a basement. There was a man inside with his head blown off. When she came back outside, Baldwin-Casey acted nonchalant and quipped that the man had a problem because he could no longer wear a hat.

She then walked around the corner, so the other officers wouldn’t see her throw up.

Baldwin-Casey, who retired from the Youngstown Police Department in 2010, was the first woman to become a front-lines supervisor there. She is marking another milestone this year, as the first black female officer in the Campbell Police Department’s history.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.