Like mother, like daughter.
The Flatbush mother-daughter team of Maureen Williamson, 45, and Tamika Williamson, 28, recently completed the Civilian Police Academy classes.
The course, which is offered through local police precincts, allows civilians to see what it takes to become a cop by having them take an abbreviated coarse at the academy once a week for 14 weeks.
“It’s an experience to see what they go through on the street and in training,” said Maureen Williamson.
Both Maureen and Tamika said their favorite part of the training was the “range,” where instructors break the class into teams of four, and put them in a simulated large screen video situation with unloaded police issued gun to see how they react to a real-time police situations.
In Maureen’scase, the scenario had a man with a machete holding a baby and threatening to kill the child. None of the four members decided to shoot the perpetrator, and they later learned that the man with the machete attacked police with it.
However, Tamika and the other members of her team did shoot the perpetrator.
In this scenario, the four arrived with their female partner to a domestic violence situation where a man was beating a woman.
When the female officer tried to intervene, the perpetrator grabbed the officer’s gun.
Tamika said she squeezed off five simulated rounds and latter learned one shot hit the perpetrator in the leg and the other shots hit the wall.
She also learned when this drama actually played out in real life, the perpetrator wound up killing the cop.
Other courses included how to handle situations with mentally disturbed persons, anti-terrorist training, legal training and introduction to police department protocol and ranks.
“I grew a soft spot for officers out there walking into so many adrenalin inducing situations. You get called to someone’s house and you’re always unaware what’s on the other side of door,” said Tamika Williamson.
The next class starts in March. Residents interested in taking the courses can sign up at their local precinct.
