Mary Sullivan
Served 1983-2015
Mary Sullivan began her career as a civilian employee of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police in 1980. She became a Sworn Officer in 1983. She was a hard-working, meticulous police officer. She was able to succeed in many different roles throughout her career.
In April 1987 until December 1989, she became part of the Tactical Emergency Action Men (TEAM). Their name was first changed to the Tactical Emergency Action Members and then later the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) in accordance with Provincial standards. She was the first woman to be accepted and assigned into a tactical unit in Ontario and perhaps in Canada. This was an historic event for the Service and policing in general. She was injured during a training exercise but was able to make a full recovery.
Mary tells me this picture was taken
after she had been on a training exercise for 24 hours without sleep
After her work with ERU was finished she became a criminal investigator and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in August 1993.
In 1994 she transferred into the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) where she stayed for 15 years. That extended length of service in that difficult unit is astounding all by itself. She was involved in many different and complex homicide investigations that consumed all of her working life.
One of her partners retired Detective Ed Hall remembers Mary as being a quiet, serious person and yet she carried an aura of toughness,
intelligence and civility all wrapped up into one person. Mary had the listening skills of a trained psychologist and the writing skills of Hemingway. She was the designated “writer” for a complex homicide warrant. She was explaining information that had been obtained during an eight-year investigation. She was able to summarize or distill that long investigation into 400 pages of carefully composed logic and meticulous, drawn-out facts.
Ed believes, there were very few people in our Police Service, who had the patience, skill or intelligence to accomplish such a herculean task.
By Dave Bowen, Retired Inspector, Hamilton Police Service