Two East Brunswick Police Officers Win Valor Award

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Two township police officers have won the prestigious 2021 Valor Award by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police (NJSACOP).

Officers Ryan Hensperger and Robert Thuring were awarded for preventing a suicide attempt that also threatened the safety of New Jersey Turnpike motorists. Hensperger and Thuring stopped a distraught 28-year-old man from jumping off a Route 18 overpass onto the busy New Jersey Turnpike on June 21, 2020.

After all attempts to negotiate failed, the two officers grabbed and struggled with the agitated man, Chief Frank LoSacco said. “They could have been pulled over the overpass railing and also fallen 50 feet onto the Turnpike below.”

“The swift, decisive actions that Officers Hensperger and Thuring took, without regard for their own safety, saved his life. They also prevented potentially tragic accidents for unsuspecting Turnpike drivers, had this young man suddenly fallen into the path of oncoming traffic that day,” LoSacco said.

Hensperger and Thuring were among 33 nominees from nine New Jersey police departments. This year’s Valor Award will be presented at the 109th NJSACOP’s Annual Conference & Police Security Expo on Aug. 23–26 in Atlantic City.

Thuring is an eight-year veteran who began his law enforcement career in 2011 as a Monroe Township patrolman. Hensperger was hired as an East Brunswick police officer in 2017 and has a criminal justice degree from Rutgers University.

LoSacco, a 33-year police veteran and chief since August 2019, achieved NJSACOP’s highest personal accreditation for a command executive.

The NJSACOP established its Valor Award in 2000 to recognize New Jersey police officers and private citizens who demonstrate exceptional heroism and commitment to their profession, their law enforcement agency and to the public they serve.