After 35 years with the Greater Sudbury Police Service, Sgt. Linda Delwo retired in April 2010, making her the longest serving female officer and the first female within the service to obtain the rank of sergeant.  Three women who were hired before her and one who joined at the same time had all left by the early 1980s.   

When Linda joined the service in the mid-1970s she was a shy woman, standing taller than the height requirement of 5’4” at 5’6”, with long dark hair.  As a recent graduate of Laurentian University’s French teacher’s college she was juggling supply teaching with two other jobs, unable to find full-time work.  It wasn’t until her brother-in-law officer Frank Marsh let her know that the former Sudbury Regional Police were hiring women that she began to consider it as a career. 

One month later while off duty, Marsh was tragically killed by a drunk Coca Cola driver on Regent Street, near Gloria’s restaurant.  Linda says it wasn’t his being killed that made her apply to the service, but it did cause her to put serious thought into it.  Of the five women who applied that spring, only Linda and one other made it through to be hired. 

Like all rookie police officers, she was placed in the uniform division which remained her first love despite working in many other departments.  Linda’s daughter describes her as an adrenaline junkie which explains her passion for the uniform division where there’s always something going on. 

Promotions had always been given based on seniority but at this time in her career there was a new concept introduced of exam writing for rank.  Linda made sergeant 15 years after she was hired on April Fools Day of 1990.   She decided to write the sergeant’s exam.  Upon making sergeant she was shipped out to Valley East where she found herself supervising people with more seniority than she had. 

By becoming more direct and sure of herself as a sergeant she lost her shyness.  She developed the opinion that policing is not difficult, it’s just a matter of doing the work.  However, she will admit that the work changes you as it changed her after many years of investigating sexual crimes.  Certain things still remind her of victims she has interviewed.

Even though she’s now retired, Linda is subpoenaed to court occasionally to give testimony on cases not yet resolved. 

It’s tradition for retiring officers to send around an e-mail to their colleagues.  Here is an excerpt of the parting words that took Linda months to compose:

"A few of the life lessons are: With age comes experience, experience gives you knowledge and knowledge gives you power ... You can't fight every fight. Pick your battles. Be confident of your convictions and do not back down ...

"No one on their deathbed says I should have spent more time at work. Your family is the reason you are there. Be there for them.

"I thank everyone of you for being part of my police family and the Greater Sudbury Police Service for allowing me to be part of what I believe to be one of the greatest police services in modern times."