On his first day as a law enforcement officer, Phillip Goodwin pulled over Keith Worshaim near the Lowndes County Soccer Complex for reckless driving three times.
This was OK with Worshaim — the retired Columbus Police Department lieutenant had arranged for officers from CPD, Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and Mississippi Highway Patrol to meet Goodwin, talk with him about policing and simulate traffic stops.
“It was just kind of a fun little outing,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin, a 30-year-old lifelong Columbus resident, was diagnosed with autism when he was 6. He met Worshaim through the Act Center, a vocational training center for individuals with special needs and where Worshaim volunteers as judo instructor.
Though Goodwin doesn’t do judo with him, the two have become friends, and Worshaim even drove Goodwin to the state Special Olympics earlier this year. It was on that trip when Worshaim had the idea to arrange for Goodwin to be a police officer for a day.
“The more that we can get special needs (individuals) out in the public (the better),” Worshaim said. “That way you see how they are and you see they’re just like us. They want to be loved, they want to be appreciated.”
When CPD Patrolman Glenn Jenkins and his new partner, Officer Phillip, pulled Worshaim over for swerving over the double yellow line, Worshaim pretended to be confused.
“What double line?” Worshaim asked.
He had thought it was a single yellow line, he said.
Jenkins patiently asked Worshaim for his driver’s license. After attempting to pass Jenkins cash, Worshaim pulled out a thin ID card and handed it to Goodwin.
“That’s your Kroger card,” Goodwin said.
Eventually Worshaim found the license, and Jenkins and Goodwin completed the traffic stop. The result: Worshaim wasn’t drunk, just a little clumsy.
“He just dropped his glasses, and he was trying to reach them,” Goodwin said.
But Jenkins also showed Goodwin his equipment — “He taught me how to turn on the sirens,” Goodwin said — and talked to him about how officers must have probable cause to pull drivers over.
“He’s a sweet kid,” Jenkins said. “He’s very observant, I can tell you. He’s observant and he listens … I enjoyed (having) him in my car.”
Goodwin and Worshaim repeated the scenario twice more: once with Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Mike Dulaney and his K-9 officer Diablo, and again with Mississippi Highway Patrol Sgt. Derrick Beckom.
Beckom said he had been called out to an actual accident late the night before. It wasn’t a bad wreck, but it was still tiring. Driving to Columbus to meet Goodwin the next morning — being able to “put a smile on his face” — made him remember why he’s always wanted to be a law enforcement officer.
“I always say I’m blessed with this job to bless others,” he said. “And I think today we blessed Phillip. … It’s something he’ll remember.”
Goodwin’s mother, Linda Simpson, seemed to agree with Beckom. Outings like this mean a lot to her and Goodwin, she said.
“He’s going to love this,” she said. “He’s always talked about the police. Once he meets one, they’re automatically his friend. He’s just going to have a thrill out of this. It means a lot that people will do things like this.
“I think people have become much more aware of people with intellectual disabilities and are much more accepting of them than they were in the past,” she added. “When he was growing up, I got a lot of hateful looks and a lot of hateful statements because people didn’t understand that he was autistic and that that accounted for his behavior. And I see that changing a lot.”
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