Two officers move up the blue ladder

Photos provided

The North Bay Police Service proudly promoted Sergeant Shawn Devine (l) and Constable Jim Warren (r) during a swearing in ceremony Friday at police headquarters.

Sergeant Devine was promoted to Staff Sergeant and Constable Warren was promoted to Sergeant.

Both officers passed the lengthy promotion procedure that involves a round of difficult exams as well as a fierce round of interviews with superior officers and members of the community.

Below are the biography of both officers.

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Sgt. Jim Warren

Jim followed in the footsteps of his family. His grandfather retired from the Toronto Police as an Inspector after coming over from England where he had been a Bobby. His father retired from Peel Regional as a Sgt. and his brother is presently an officer with Peel Regional.

Jim started his career in 1982 in, where else, Peel Regional. He worked so many sections that he ran out of options and joined the North Bay Police Service in 1989 and again worked so many sections, that again, he ran out of options and decided to become a Sgt.

Two memorable investigations for Jim have been the arrest and conviction of an individual for 2nd degree murder as well as an investigation into the sexual assault of a North Bay girl in 2006 which lead to the arrest of an Ottawa man who eventually confessed to a 3 year old murder of an Ottawa woman Ardeth Wood.

However Jim’s claim to fame was not those great investigations, but was for being Chief Cook’s swimming coach at the Ontario Police College back in the day.

Staff Sergeant Shawn Devine

As everyone knows Shawn was paramount in the success of the Emergency Services involvement for the Heritage Festival. However, it should also be mentioned that Shawn was a pretty good copper and convicted quite a lot of bad guys. One for taking the life of his spouse, one for taking the life of a Nipissing University student and one for 2 serious sexual assaults.

What Shawn fondly remembers the most is a letter that he received in 2002 and still keeps with him. That letter was written by a father who thanked him for his assistance with his daughter who had run away to Toronto. The father wrote that Shawn, and I quote “had gone way above and beyond”. The daughter was now doing well and this was in great part because of Shawn’s, and I quote, “going the extra mile”.

Shawn keeps this letter because he believes it speaks to the reason we are police officers.

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