After 40 years of volunteer service, OPP auxiliary officer Al Jodoin hangs up his hat

Not many can say they have made it to 40 years doing the same job, especially if they weren't getting paid.

For Alan Jodoin of Cornwall, Ont., he just loved what he did.

It started back in 1982 when Jodoin was interested in becoming a police officer.

"I had a friend that I was working with that was an auxiliary, so when I talked to him he explained how the program worked and I thought this was a great opportunity to find out if policing is what I actually want."

The auxiliary unit is a volunteer program with the Ontario Provincial Police, which gives civilians a chance to see what being an officer can entail.

"It's mostly going out and doing patrol with regular officers, and assisting at community events," Jodoin said.

While Jodoin didn't become an officer, he stuck with volunteering in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.

He would sometimes put in more than 1,000 hours a month through the 80s and 90s, all while keeping full-time jobs at Domtar in Cornwall, and working as a computer analyst technician for Ontario and the Maritimes for Ultramar and Calgary-based Parkland Fuels.

OPP auxiliary officer Al Jodoin.

"I love volunteering. I enjoy helping people," Jodoin said. "When I go home and we had a great day and nobody got hurt and everybody's fine, it's a good feeling knowing that you gave something back."

He became the auxiliary unit commander in SD&G in 2005.

OPP Detachment Commander Marc Hemmerick says he's never met anyone so dedicated as Jodoin.

"He has always had a very robust program which has supported our detachment and our community goals in a wide variety of fashions," he said.

"Our auxiliary unit is one of our most important units in the OPP. We absolutely appreciate the volunteer service that they provide and the hours they put in on their own," Hemmerick added. "It is a very under-appreciated program."

"We have been unbelievably fortunate to have auxiliary Staff Sergeant Al Jodoin as our unit leader," he said.

Over the years, the unit would assist with community events like food drives, and the Highland Games in Maxville. Jodoin said that was his favourite event, not missing a games in 30 years.

"We are extremely proud of Al," Hemmerick said. "Al has actually dedicated those 40 years to the community he has served and he will be dearly missed."

After some health issues in 2020, including a heart attack and two strokes, which confined him to a wheelchair, Jodoin retired from the force in 2022, after 40 years of volunteer work.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, was to pack up my uniform and bring it back because I've done this over half my life." Jodoin said. "It's all I knew."

The OPP auxiliary unit officer hat, distinguished by the blue-checkered banner. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)

With COVID gripping the world in 2020, the auxiliary unit slowed down, with events being cancelled. The detachment worked with Jodoin to accommodate him and get him to his 40-year mark, so he could have four decades of service with the organization.

With his health issues, Jodoin could not continue with the mandatory yearly training being an auxiliary offer requires, and knew he would eventually have to retire.

"Certainly, it was as important to us as an organization as it was to Al to find a way to support him through the challenges that he experienced over the last year and a half to get him to that 40-year mark," Hemmerick said.

"They are very big shoes to fill," he said. "I think we can all appreciate that after 40 years whether you are in an organization being paid or you are doing it for volunteer, that 40 years is quite a significant amount of time to dedicate to an organization and especially one that is volunteer."

Jodoin says he will miss the community events and the people he's met along the way.

"The officers, my auxiliary members. But I've got email and I've got a phone. I'll keep in touch with them," Jodoin said, while joking there was really only one difference between the auxiliary members and the officers.

"One hundred thousand dollars!" he chirped with a laugh.

He says he will continue to volunteer in his community like at the local Lions Club when he can.

"I've got to keep busy. I get really bored when I'm not busy," he said, adding that anyone interested in police work should look into becoming an auxiliary member.

"This is the best way to go, you'll never regret it," Jodoin said. "Even if you don't make it as a police officer, it's so rewarding to be an auxiliary volunteer when you get home and you know you helped somebody, you'll feel great."

An auxiliary member does total of 60 hours training and 120 hours of patrol/community events in a year, and it can lead into full-time work for the OPP.

"We are always looking for new recruits to join the program," Hemmerick said. "We highly encourage it. It's an excellent opportunity to gain real-life experience by going on ride along and frontline patrol with our officers. We really strive to diversify those patrols so not just out in the cars, but we have our auxiliaries out in the community, participating in community events, out on our marine patrol, out on the St. Lawrence, out on our skidoo's and ATV's keeping our trails safe."

"What you've got to ask yourself is, 'Is policing what you want to do?', But you're unsure, you're on the fence, I would say join an auxiliary program, your closest area, they are all over Ontario," Jodoin said.