Left to right: Cody Osborne, Darren Simons, Cam Lueken, and Geoff Applegate (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

James Smith Response

Melfort RCMP provide plaques of appreciation to local conservation officers

Jul 11, 2023 | 11:06 AM

The Melfort RCMP Detachment recently acknowledged two of their own for their help in response to last year’s James Smith Cree Nation tragedy.

Cam Lueken, a sergeant with the Ministry of Corrections, Policing, and Public Safety, alongside conservation officer Cody Osborne, were two of the first responders to arrive on the First Nation that day.

“We don’t do well on recognizing, people are so critical of law enforcement, and they’re ready to jump us for every little thing we do, and their perception is wrong, so it’s important that when someone does something that goes above and beyond, they should be recognized,” former Staff Sgt. Darren Simons said.

Because of this, both were awarded with plaques of appreciation on Monday (July 11) by Simons and interim Staff Sgt. Geoff Applegate.

The plaques, which are dated September 4, 2022, read: “in appreciation for your bravery and dedication in assisting the Melfort RCMP to ensure public safety for the James Smith Cree Nation and surrounding area in their time of need.”

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(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

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The local detachment did something similar for the Melfort Fire Department, back in April as Simons said “partnerships are extremely important and they can’t do anything alone anymore.”

“Having another law enforcement agency that knows their area, whom we have a working relationship, that we know we can rely on, it means a lot,” he told northeastNOW. “Augmenting us with these two Conservation Officers who helped with the site security where the triage was taking place and helped clear scenes and provide security, that just meant we had more people out there that could help.”

Simons also pointed out the benefit of people he could trust that could also attend the scene quickly.

A local resource, whether it be the department of transportation, highway patrol or conservation officers, just “strengthens the team and makes the community safer” he said.

“I think this province has a lot to brag for, if they need our help, or we need their help, they’re there and it’s just a quick call. We don’t even make the call, it’s done, there’s a provincial Response Team, and whoever’s available, whatever law enforcement is available, they will roll,” Simons added.

“There’s times these guys could be the first on scene, but they know we’re rolling to help them and we know they’re there to cover for us.”

Sgt. Lueken was doing site security that day, with the help of Simons before Simons had to be deployed to go clear a scene, at which point he brought officer Osborne with him who was “front and center, knew what he was doing, and contagiously confident,” Simons said.

That left Lueken by himself, however, Simons was comfortable with the experience and confidence of the man he was asking to be on his own.

While Lueken, along with Osborne were honoured to be recognized, they simply stated they were just doing their job and completing tasks required of them.

“We’re just part of a team that were trying to work together with our RCMP coworkers,” Lueken said. “We are just deployed, are all adequately trained and responded to the call as needed. We’re just filling in the voids as we could until other members could attend to take over. We always strive to keep open communication and good relationships with our fellow enforcement agencies and we work very well together.”

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