Vietnamese Australian police officers: social judgements and identity constructions by other officers

The paper explores the construction of identities of police officers with Vietnamese Australian heritage by three types of Anglo officers -- advocates, antagonists and ambivalent officers. The idea of cultural fix-points is utilised to investigate how conflict, bias and loyalty affect group identity constructions. The paper draws on data from the four-year ARC Linkage Project: Exploring the experience of security in the Australian Vietnamese community: practical implications for policing which commenced in July 2008 and concluded in 2011.The paper is based on 54 interviews with Anglo police officers in three Police Service Areas in Melbourne. The paper investigates the motivations and processes that lead to the ascription of particular identities to Vietnamese Australian officers by Anglo officers. The paper concludes with some implications for practice.