Three officers honoured with GG's Order of Merit

An officer with a storied career as a United Nations peacekeeper was one of three Ottawa Police Service members invested into the Governor General's Order of Merit of the Police Forces this week, one of Canada's highest honours for police officers.

“It is humbling,” said Staff Sgt. Roy Lalonde, who retired last month after 31 years in uniform and is one of the three OPS recipients.

“It's nice overall. It's a great touch to what I thought was a pretty adventurous career.”

Honoured with him were OPS Ceremonial Sergeant Major Steve Boucher and Insp. Debbie Miller. Boucher was recognized for his “relationship-building skills at a local, national and international level,” and for his charity work, OPS said in a news release. Miller was recognized for creating a “more inclusive environment at the OPS” and working with the RCMP to help keep children safe online, OPS said.

Lalonde was recognized for his role in developing high-level security measures for visiting dignitaries and for his work with the UN.

“I never anticipated a career in policing would land me all over the world,” he said.

Lalonde was born and raised in Cornwall and grew up wanting to work as a police officer.

He got his chance in 1990 in Toronto, where he began his career. Nine years later he moved to Ottawa and began working with OPS.

The new environment quickly presented opportunities to travel and delve into new areas of policing. He worked at Ground Zero in New York City shortly after 9/11, and back in Ottawa he co-ordinated security for visiting dignitaries, including U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Those experiences gave him a knack for problem-solving, he said, which he was soon putting to the test all over the world as one of the first trainers for UN policing efforts.

As part of its peacekeeping missions around the world, the UN uses Formed Policing Units — contingents of 140 officers provided by a donor country — to maintain order. But many of those units used to arrive with radically different

I never anticipated a career in policing would land me all over the world. I'm blessed. It's been such a great career.

standards for things like human rights and the use of force, so the UN drew upon officers like Lalonde to train them.

He travelled the world on training missions, helping to export Canadian policing ideas. The work took him to France, Russia, Italy, Botswana, Jordan, Rwanda and Haiti, to name just a few. He worked in conflict zones and had many adventures, like when a civil war broke out in the Ivory Coast in 2011, forcing him to hop aboard on a small plane to Ghana.

“I'm blessed,” Lalonde said. “It's been such a great career.”

Lalonde retired from the force last month to work for the U.S. State Department, but his family is continuing the policing tradition: His son was hired by OPS in 2018.

“He's got some years ahead to catch up to dad,” Lalonde said with a laugh.