Inspector Sonia Thomas of 53 Division recalls her mother worrying how she would ever get on by joining the police in 1986. As told by Thomas, they didn’t see too many black police officers when she was growing up near Oakwood Ave. and St. Clair Ave. W. Her mom, trained as a nurse in England, was concerned when she learned Sonia was joining the Toronto Police. “She had concerns about how I was going to rise through the ranks in an organization that didn’t have people at the top that looked like us,” said Thomas. Nonetheless, Thomas made history in 2010 by becoming the service’s first black woman senior officer. She retires on March 28. Thomas Legacy in Fellow Officers