Torrisi Receives Methuen Exchange’s Police Officer of the Year

Chief Joseph Solomon, right, presents Officer Thomas R. Torrisi Jr. with the 2015 Police Officer of the Year Award from the Methuen Exchange Club for saving Christine Prescott’s life earlier this year.

The Methuen Exchange Club’s “2015 Police Officer of the Year Award” was presented to a Methuen officer credited with saving the life of a woman during a medical emergency.

Methuen Police Officer Thomas R. Torrisi Jr. was presented the award at a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 18, according to a statement Friday from Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon. Last February, Torrisi responded to a report of a female in cardiac arrest. Christine Prescott, the woman whose life was saved, also attended the ceremony and personally thanked Torrisi on behalf of her family and her young son.

“There are no words that could possibly describe how thankful I am to be here,” Prescott said. “When I was at the hospital, I was told by the nurses that I asked for my son 50 times. I can never imagine my life without him or his life without me. He is my absolute everything, so thank you for letting me live that day.”

Solomon presented the award to Torrisi, who has been a full-time officer since 1993.

“We are lucky to have such dedicated department members like Officer Torrisi and I am beyond proud to call him one of our own,” Solomon said. “Thanks to his hard work and quick response, this story has a happy ending. A life was saved, and a mother got to go home to her family.”

Torrisi is currently assigned to the Methuen Police Department’s Patrol Division, and has been a member of the Methuen Police Department Honor Guard since its inception. Previously, he was a sexual assault investigator for many years.

Torrisi graduated from Northern Essex Community College in 1987. Then, in 1990 he became an auxiliary officer with the Methuen Police Department and then a reserve officer before becoming a full-time officer. He graduated from Franklin Pierce College in 1997.