NORTH BRUNSWICK — The North Brunswick Police Department (NBPD) has hired two new officers who will begin serving the public next summer.
Richard De La Cruz and Ling Tsui are both township residents, Marine Corps veterans and four-year college graduates. They were hired from the New Jersey Civil Service Commission Eligibility List for Police Officers.
They will attend the Somerset County Police Academy from January to June and will begin patrolling soon after graduation.“ We lucked out all around with these guys,” Police Director Kenneth Mc- Cormick said, noting that he is pleased with increasing the department’s minority representation.
De La Cruz has lived in North Brunswick for over 10 years. He joined the Marines on Thanksgiving Day 2000 and came off the Reserve list on Thanksgiving Day 2008.
In 2003 he enrolled in Rutgers University to pursue degrees in criminal justice and sociology, but when the war in Iraq was announced, he was mobilized to Al-Nasiriyah, Iraq, where he participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom through August 2003. He conducted searches of houses and vehicles for weapons, helped transport medical supplies to hospitals and served as a machine gunner in the infantry.
“The military was a challenge … and my responsibility to my country. It gives great opportunities to be successful, so I wanted to do it for my country,” he said.
De La Cruz then returned to complete his criminal justice degree at Rutgers.
He said his military training will help him as a local law enforcement officer because he learned to pay attention to details.
“The military experience taught me to be very alert on my feet, observant, and taught a lot of aspects to carry on the streets,” he said.
De La Cruz said he wanted to be a police officer since he was very young because he admired and respected officers.
He said he is looking forward to getting to work because being a policeman is “an opportunity, like a platform, for me to have a positive influence on people’s lives, especially young people.”
“Being a police officer is a career, not a job, and I am very excited to start my career,” he said. “I am very fortunate to be in this position. I am very appreciative.”
Tsui has lived in town for the past two years; his family moved from Hamilton to North Brunswick while he was with the Marines.
He said he has always been interested in law enforcement, especially since high school. He interned at the NBPD during college, going on ride-alongs, learning about dispatch, going to court and getting to know the personnel.
“It’s being able to do something I’ve wanted to do since high school,” Tsui said of the opportunity to finally be hired as an officer.
Tsui initially joined the military because “I thought it would help my career out later on.”
“Being a veteran definitely put me higher on the list,” he said. “And experience wise, it helped me a lot. I matured.”
Tsui was deployed on a naval ship in 2005 and then went straight to Iraq in 2006. He was not in combat.
He will be on the Individual Ready Reserve list until August.
Tsui also received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and graduated magna cum laude from Berkeley College in Woodbridge.
“[This is about] being able to complete one [of my goals]” Tsui said. “And it will be good to see the community, helping out different people.”
Contact Jennifer Amato at
jamato@gmnews.com.