Yellowknife RCMP “G” Division welcomed a new Commanding Officer in a formal ceremony after six years of service from outgoing Commanding Officer Jamie Zettler.
Sydney ‘Syd’ Lecky is a New Brunswick born Jamaican raised, member of Peskotomuhkati First Nation and has been a member of the RCMP since 1996.
Lecky served much of his time in northern British Columbia and served as the advisory officer for Indigenous Policing in northern BC, responsible for 62 Indigenous communities.
“Working in rural and isolation and Indigenous communities is not anything new for me,” Lecky told MyTrueNorthNow. “But there are nuances to every region of the country, every community, so you get to experience lots of differences, but that’s why I came,” He added.
The new Commanding Officer spoke on some challenges he has faced, and expects to face in the future regarding the difficulty of policing arctic communities, especially on the ocean.
“There are unique challenges to living in the arctic, and on the Arctic Ocean, half of our detachments are in fly-in only communities,” Lecky said. “So there are unique challenges that come with that, not just for how policing operations are handled but also how our staff get in and out of those communities to complete their jobs.”
Lecky’s change of command ceremony included words from G Division RCMP members and RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme. A full troop in Red Serge marched in Lecky and Duheme, and Lecky was officially sworn in around 3:00 the afternoon of May 30th, 2023.
