ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Westminster’s Police Reach Out

Police officers say that to be effective they need the help of the community they serve. One way to get that help is to have a force that reflects the makeup of the community, able to understand the culture and speak the language.

Nearly a quarter of Westminster’s 81,000 residents are Vietnamese-Americans, but the 101-person police force includes only four members of that ethnic community. Police officials say a number of problems have prevented recruitment of more Vietnamese-Americans. In view of this, it’s good that someone like Jenny Truong is willing to help, despite objections even from her own family.

Truong is a civilian working in the police community relations department. She doesn’t carry a gun but she wears a police uniform and walks the streets to explain the Police Department to Westminster residents and to relay their concerns to department brass. She holds classes to teach refugees from Vietnam how to avoid becoming victims of crime and what to do if they are preyed on.

The classes are given at the St. Anselm Refugee Center in Garden Grove, which has a long, praiseworthy record of helping Vietnamese newcomers to this country, and at the Little Saigon Resource Center in Westminster. As part of its worthwhile effort to reach out to the community, the Westminster Police Department helps to run the resource center, which benefits from federal, state and local grants.

It wasn’t too long ago that women trying to break the all-male barrier of police departments across this country found it very tough going. Cultural biases against Asian-American women doing police work run deeper still: Truong’s mother initially opposed her accepting a job in the department. Truong also faces a community that sometimes feels persecuted by the police. That attitude is, in part, the legacy of a system in Vietnam that allowed corrupt policemen to abuse the population.

Like other Westminster residents, the Vietnamese are concerned about gangs. Their worries are justified, because Vietnamese gangs in the city often victimize other Vietnamese, staging “home invasion” robberies and extorting “protection money” from shopkeepers. In these cases, and in cases of domestic violence, too, most Vietnamese refuse to complain to the police.

Truong was born in Vietnam, came to Orange County at age 8 and graduated from Westminster High School. With her fluency in English and Vietnamese and her understanding of American and Vietnamese cultures, she is a valuable asset in the Police Department. Westminster would do well to continue an aggressive campaign to recruit officers who reflect the myriad faces of the city they serve.