OPP’s Ivan Lalonde retires

SOUTH DUNDAS – “My boots are as shiny today as they were the day that I started 30 years ago,” said OPP officer Ivan Lalonde as he talked about his time with the Ontario Provincial Police in the days leading up to his retirement.

Those shiny boots are the embodiment of Lalonde’s work ethic and professionalism that served him well as he worked day after day to try to make a difference.

Lalonde, who is originally from Cornwall and is a 40 year Ingleside resident, ends his 30 year career with the OPP today (March 4). In those 30 years he became a familiar face on the local force having been stationed for all of those 30 years in the Morrisburg and Long Sault detachments.

Lalonde started his policing career, at 30 years old, with the OPP auxiliary, where he spent three years. “I was employed in Cornwall when I joined the auxiliary just to give a little back to my community,” explained Lalonde. He found that he really enjoyed the work he was doing as part of the OPP auxiliary. He successfully applied to the police service and the rest is history. “I got posted right in my backyard.” He spent his first eight months on the job at the Morrisburg station office when it was located on County Road 31, then he spent the next 10 years at Long Sault before returning to Morrisburg where he’s been for the last 20 years.

“I’ve loved it here,” said Lalonde.

While Lalonde was stationed in Morrisburg as a traffic officer, he was more than that.

The highlight of Lalonde’s career was joining the OPP Golden Helmets Precision Motorcycle Team.

“Being a Golden Helmet member has been the shining star of my career,” said Lalonde. “In every small community where you show up, you’re like a rockstar – everybody loves to see you. It’s pretty rare when you’re a police officer that people like to see you because you’re usually dealing with people at the worst times of their lives. So, it’s really nice to be part of that positivity.”

“The most positive thing in all of policing, in all of the OPP is the Golden Helmets,” said Lalonde

When he was able to ride with the Golden Helmets in his hometown in 2019, Lalonde couldn’t say enough about the experience. “It was probably one of the best shows we’ve ever done.”

Retirement means that Lalonde will no longer be involved with the Golden Helmets.

“It’s for frontline members only, and that’s only right,” said Lalonde. “I’ve had my time. Now it’s time for the young guys to come in and get a shot at it and enjoy what I got to enjoy for 10 years.”

He said that is the hardest part of retirement. “Those motorcycles are issued to us. I had to take the Golden Helmet tank badge with my name on it off it this week. It was tough.”

Lalonde said that the best part of policing is having the opportunity the affect positive change. He recalled early in his career taking in a child from a horribly abusive situation in deplorable living conditions and then having the opportunity to visit him later in a safe foster home and seeing how proud that child was to have his own room and his own stuffies and toys. “It was so rewarding to know that he never had to go back to where he was,” said Lalonde.

“I’ve seen a lot of dark stuff,” he added. Being a traffic guy he not only saw a lot of fatals, he had to do a lot of next of kin notifications. “Those are memories you don’t want to have.”

“You don’t come out of this career the same guy you come in,” said Lalonde.

While plenty has changed over the last 30 years in policing, the biggest changes are definitely technology-related.

He remembered the old green on black DOS prompt computer systems they worked on when he started. Now every car is equipped with automatic licence plate readers, in-car cameras filming everything constantly, body-worn cameras and much more.

He laughed thinking back to when he first started: “We didn’t even have an AM/FM radio in the car. They had them all taken out so they wouldn’t be a distraction. Now you’ve got a computer right in your face.”

Reflecting on his career, Lalonde said that policing is for someone who wants to make a difference and while you don’t always get to make a difference, you at least get to try.

“It is difficult, and it’s not for everybody. But when you get to help someone, it can be very rewarding.”