Policing in a changing Vietnam

Author:
Jardine, Melissa
Publication Date:
2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3631
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/
Link to license to see what you are allowed to do with this resource.

Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/61491 in https://

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Policing in a changing Vietnam

Melissa Adele Jardine

Faculty of Law

A thesis submitted to the University of New South

Wales in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

of Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology

February 2019
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Abstract

Knowledge about policing has been produced and disseminated unevenly so that
our understanding comes from a skewed emphasis on the Western (largely
Anglo-American) experience. Whilst such literature usually does not openly
declare to be making claims of universal validity, it often does so by implication.
Fortunately, more empirical research is being undertaken outside the global
North.

The present study adopted an ethnographic approach to explore the nature of

policing and police culture in Vietnam. The origins of the Vietnamese police
(according to our modern understanding) are located in a war against colonialism
and for national independence emerging in the 1940s in northern Vietnam with
officers now required to pledge loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. Over the
past three decades, the country has undergone rapid economic and social
change. Nevertheless, amid this increasing prosperity, the police confront new
challenges.

Fieldwork was undertaken over a six-month period in 2016 (and a visit in 2017)
with approval from the Ministry of Public Security – a first in Vietnam. The
theoretical framework addresses weaknesses in current theorising of policing by
proposing a Southern Policing perspective. I offer an extension of the interactive
model of police culture and practice developed by Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003)
which draws on Bourdieu’s (1990a) conceptualisations of field and habitus as a
relational dynamic. The framework is useful because it provides flexibility for
explaining police practices in both Northern and Southern contexts. It can also
account for differences in cultural knowledge and institutionalised practices. A
Southern Policing perspective also recognises that capital comes in forms which
may depart from those identified in previous studies.

By applying a Southern Policing perspective to Vietnam, the study reveals

variations in the field which illustrate that some assumptions about policing do not
necessarily hold for a globally inclusive/comprehensive account of policing.
Specifically, I address assumptions about relationships between the police,
political system, broad societal culture, legal frameworks, organisations, the
community, and gender. These variations have to be understood not as
iv
deviations from Anglo-American normality but as significant separate practices
and traditions of policing from which the North may have something to learn.

v
Acknowledgements

I was privileged to have the supervision of this doctoral research by Professor

Janet Chan and Professor David Dixon. I have benefited immensely from their
knowledge on policing in its many forms across the globe and have a deep
admiration for them both professionally and personally.

Importantly, this research would not have been possible without the co-operation
of the police in Vietnam. There are so many police officers who have helped me
refine my research topic, support the fieldwork and share their ideas with me
although I will not refer to their names specifically here. I thank the Ministry of
Public Security for entrusting me with undertaking this research and the People’s
Police Academy for their support and interest in my research. I wholeheartedly
agree with the sentiment David Bayley noted in his work (Patterns of Policing,
xii), in that the research forged ‘professional links across the barriers of custom
and politics in an area of enormous sensitivity’. It is also noteworthy that in 2018,
Australia and Vietnam upgraded their relationship to a Strategic Partnership and
I see this research between Australian and Vietnamese institutions as a
testament to the strength of the relationship.

I am appreciative of the in-country supervision of Dr Khuất Thị Hải Oanh, Centre

for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI). I am also grateful to
the Director of the Institute for Social Development Studies, Dr Khuất Thu Hồng
and the Internal Review Board for taking the time to review and approve the in-
country ethics application.

I have been given support and encouragement from a range of agencies in the
lead up to commencing this research as well as in its undertaking. I would like to
acknowledge the Australian Embassy and Australian Federal Police in Vietnam,
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Vietnam), the Vietnamese
Embassy and Consulate in Australia, the Australian Government’s Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Vietnam Desk), the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific
Affairs at the Australian National University, and, the Asia Society Australia.

I am very grateful for the financial and social supports provided by the UNSW
Law School. I would especially like to thank Jenny Jarrett as I doubt any student

vi
in the Law School can complete a PhD without her diligence and warm
encouragement. To Professor Luke McNamara, Dr Vicki Sentas, Dr Michael
Grewcock and Professor Sarah Williams – thank you for taking time to read my
work, provide feedback and navigate the processes for ensuring I reached
completion.

When I relocated from Victoria to commence this research by coincidence my

new clinical psychologist also happened to be a Professor of Psychiatry at
UNSW, Vijaya Manicavasagar. It is not easy to have suffered Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) from working as a police officer and then pursue a PhD
on the subject so I thank Professor Manicavasagar for her treatment and helping
me navigate the difficult terrain.

I want to pay special tribute to Professor Nick Crofts and Bill Stronach, both
Directors of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health. My work with
them has given me extraordinary opportunities to learn from and work with police
officers from over 20 countries (especially through the Law Enforcement and HIV
Network). This has been a source of peer support (even for retired and former
police which I believe attests to a continuing form of solidarity after finishing
official service) and facilitated my thinking about policing across national borders.

Many thanks to Heather Grace Jones and Paul James for their friendship,
mentoring and feedback on parts of this thesis. Thanks to Geoff Monaghan for
his persistent encouragement, companionship when in Hanoi and sharing a love
of Vietnam.

Thanks are due to my parents who have supported me and my education in a

multitude of ways and are ardent supporters of the pathway I have pursued.

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Peer-reviewed published articles

• Jardine, M. Gender equality and the role of women in policing in Vietnam. The
People’s Police Journal No. 3(13). Ministry of Public Security. Hanoi. 2018.

• Jardine, M. (2018b) Researching gender and law enforcement as public health

input. Journal of Community Safety & Well-Being, August 3(1)
https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/article/view/65/119

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Table of Contents
Abstract....................................................................................................................................... iv

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... vi

Peer-reviewed published articles ............................................................................................. ix

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ x

List of tables ............................................................................................................................. xiv

List of figures ........................................................................................................................... xiv

A note on language and terminology ...................................................................................... xv

Glossary ................................................................................................................................... xvii

Chapter 1: Thesis overview........................................................................................................ 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1
Police, place and the production of policing knowledge............................................................ 3
Rationale for the study .............................................................................................................. 6
Overview of the chapters ........................................................................................................ 10

Chapter 2: Conflict, continuity and change: shaping Vietnam and contemporary policing
.................................................................................................................................................... 14
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 15
Indigeneity, invasion and identity ............................................................................................ 16
Migration and markets ............................................................................................................. 20
Social control, cultivating proper conduct and culture ............................................................. 24
Emerging security challenges ................................................................................................. 33
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 36

Chapter 3: A framework for a Southern Policing perspective .............................................. 37

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 37
Southern Theory and policing ................................................................................................. 38
Police and the political system ................................................................................................ 41
Police and discourses about the law ....................................................................................... 44
Factors affecting police culture and practice ........................................................................... 46
Police recruitment, training and education .............................................................................. 51
Society’s expectations of police .............................................................................................. 53
Conceptualising police culture and its production ................................................................... 55
Gender ................................................................................................................................ 59
A Southern Policing perspective ............................................................................................. 61

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 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 63

Chapter 4: Police ethnography in the global South: methodology and ethics ................... 64
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 64
Situating the researcher in ethnographic police studies in a one-party state .......................... 64
Scholarship and advocacy ...................................................................................................... 73
Research methods and design ............................................................................................... 76
Selection of the study site ................................................................................................... 77
Document review ................................................................................................................ 77
Ethics approval .................................................................................................................... 79
Approval from the Ministry of Public Security ...................................................................... 79
Observation ......................................................................................................................... 80
Semi-structured interviews .................................................................................................. 83
Data analysis ....................................................................................................................... 87
Research costs ................................................................................................................... 87
Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 88
Informed consent, data integrity and presenting a social reality ......................................... 88
Interpretation and translation .............................................................................................. 91
Ethnography or espionage .................................................................................................. 93
Moral responsibility ............................................................................................................. 94
Illness in the field ................................................................................................................. 96
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 97

Chapter 5: Overview of police history, structures and organisation in Vietnam ................ 98

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 98
The emergence of the People’s Police Force ......................................................................... 99
Police and the political system .............................................................................................. 101
Codes of ethics for police ...................................................................................................... 103
Organisation of the People’s Police Force ............................................................................ 107
Eligibility, recruitment and selection .................................................................................. 110
Ranks, promotion, retirement age and salaries ................................................................ 111
Police accountability .............................................................................................................. 112
Academia and police education ............................................................................................ 117
The People’s Police Academy .............................................................................................. 117
Police as academic and research leaders ........................................................................ 120
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 120

Chapter 6: Learning to be a police officer ............................................................................ 124

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 124
Edification and policing in Vietnam ....................................................................................... 125
Joining the police: from patriots to pragmatists? ................................................................... 126
The Bachelor of Policing ....................................................................................................... 130
The ‘General’ police curriculum: Learning morality ........................................................... 131
The ‘Professional’ police curriculum: Specialist subjects .................................................. 133
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 Homestay and internships as part of police curriculum ..................................................... 135
Post-graduate police education............................................................................................. 136
Socialisation .......................................................................................................................... 137
Constructing a police culture ............................................................................................. 138
The ‘small society’ of the Academy ................................................................................... 139
Alumni, appreciation money and financial ‘socialisation’ .................................................. 143
Pursuing a police career ....................................................................................................... 145
Implications of the ‘Professional’ curriculum and police sub-cultures ............................... 145
Ward and district level police......................................................................................... 147
The nature of community contact .................................................................................. 149
Status accorded to subject ............................................................................................ 150
Gender .......................................................................................................................... 151
Age ................................................................................................................................ 152
Organisational and social hierarchy .................................................................................. 154
Diversity and inclusion: gender, ethnic minorities and LGBTI communities ...................... 157
Promotions ........................................................................................................................ 159
Performance management ................................................................................................ 161
Asking superiors advice as positive interaction ................................................................. 163
Party membership ............................................................................................................. 164
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 165

Chapter 7: Bamboo, boundaries and benevolence: police culture, norms and practices in
transition .................................................................................................................................. 169
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 169
Social order and local policing .............................................................................................. 170
Police as educators in an evolving legal environment .......................................................... 177
Principle of non-intervention: protected values or pragmatism? ........................................... 180
‘You can’t be a stranger in your own society’: the informal economy ................................... 184
Embracing and resisting change ........................................................................................... 190
The ‘good’ police officer ........................................................................................................ 195
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 201

Chapter 8: Matriarchy, mobilisation and modern women in Vietnamese policing ........... 207
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 207
Geography, gender and a touch of grace ............................................................................. 211
Confucian influence ............................................................................................................... 213
Mobilising women: exploitation or empowerment? ............................................................... 214
Femininity and agency .......................................................................................................... 221
Motherhood, iced tea and the death penalty ......................................................................... 229
The ‘ideal’ green superMAN.................................................................................................. 231
Promotions, paperwork and progression through the ranks ................................................. 236
Views on official policy and women’s integration into policing .............................................. 240

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 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 242

Chapter 9: Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 246

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 246
Contribution to police ethnography ....................................................................................... 248
Fluidity of researcher positionality in police ethnography .................................................. 248
Appreciative inquiry ........................................................................................................... 249
Conceptualisations of ‘culture’ .......................................................................................... 251
The field of policing: the dynamics of change and stability ................................................... 252
Change .............................................................................................................................. 253
Stability .............................................................................................................................. 256
State-society relations ........................................................................................................... 262
Women in policing ................................................................................................................. 265
Theoretical contributions of a Southern Policing perspective ............................................... 268
Future research directions .................................................................................................... 269
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 271

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 273

Appendices .............................................................................................................................. 307

Appendix 1: The standards for soft skills at the People’s Police Academy...................... 308

Appendix 2: Major specialisations at the People’s Police Academy ................................. 309

Appendix 3: Sample of Participant Information Statement and Consent Form ................ 311

Appendix 4: Sample interview guides................................................................................... 323

Semi-structured interview guide: students ............................................................................ 323
Semi-structured interview guide: officers .............................................................................. 324

Appendix 5: Letter of Approval from the People’s Police Academy .................................. 325

xiii
List of tables
Table 1. Sample of police interviewees................................................................................... 83
Table 2. Obligations and responsibilities of People’s Public Security officers, non-
commissioned officers and men ................................................................................... 104
Table 3. Ten Disciplines of the People’s Public Security Forces ....................................... 105
Table 4. Rank, retirement age and salaries of the People’s Police Force ......................... 112
Table 5. Major units, departments and functions of the People’s Police Academy ......... 119
Table 6. Major specialisations at the People’s Police Academy ........................................ 134

List of figures
Figure 1. Map of Vietnam ......................................................................................................... 14

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A note on language and terminology

What is now considered ‘Vietnamese’ is a blend of ‘locally diverse indigenous

beliefs (such as those represented in the spirit cults), the standard Northern
culture of the elite, the strong trans-national Buddhist presence, and other ethnic
patterns in the mountains and along the coast’ (G. E. Dutton, Werner, &
Whitmore, 2012, p. 10). Furthermore, with over 2000 years of chronicled (yet
incomplete) history there are contested ideas and versions of the past which are
explored in more detail elsewhere (for example, see G. E. Dutton et al., 2012;
Goscha, 2016a; Taylor, 2013). Nonetheless, the term ‘Vietnamese’ is used within
this thesis as a broad descriptor for people, history and culture which contain
complex series of identities resulting in a ‘blended’ story.

In this thesis I have used Vietnamese characters (chữ Nôm) for spelling names
and places where possible and other key words. One anomaly is in the different
approaches to the country name, Vietnam, and the two major cities: Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City. The correct spelling for these are: Việt Nam, Hà Nội and Thành
phố Hồ Chí Minh. In this thesis I have referred to them as Vietnam, Hanoi and Hồ
Chí Minh City – the English translation in the former two and a partial translation
for the latter. The reason for this is that, given much of the research was
undertaken in Hanoi, and the frequency of use, not using diacritics may be easier
for the reader. I have used diacritics for the southern capital, formerly known as
Sài Gòn, because it provides consistency between when I am referring to (North)
Vietnam’s first President, Hồ Chí Minh or the city re-named in his honour as Hồ
Chí Minh City.

The thesis uses a Southern Policing (Jardine, 2018b) theoretical framework

which draws upon the previous constructs Southern Theory (Connell, 2007) and
Southern Criminology (Carrington, 2016). In these contexts, ‘Southern’ refers to
a distinction between the global North and the global South. It has been used by
Connell (2007) and Carrington et al. (2016) to refer to the asymmetry of
sociological and criminological knowledge between the two hemispheres. The
North-South distinction is not neat, however, as it also generally refers to a wealth

xv
disparity and a difference between former imperialists and their colonies.1 The
objective of a Southern scholarship is to draw attention to the imbalance in power
and understanding: it is a project concerned with promoting scholarship from and
on regions which have been rendered invisible.

It is important to distinguish Southern Theory from an association with the former

distinctions between North Vietnam and South Vietnam in the years prior to
reunification. The histories of North and South Vietnam have been differentiated
by migration and practices towards economic enterprise, with the south reflecting
more ‘capitalist’ tendencies (Beresford, 1989). After reunification and the failure
of centralised economic planning, some scholars referred to the economic
reforms of the 1980s as a ‘southernization’ of Vietnam, implying that
characteristics associated with pre-1975 South Vietnam were now being taken
up in the North (Tài, 2001, p. 182). In Southern scholarship, Southern refers to
Vietnam in its entirety due to the country’s geographical location in the global
South. Notwithstanding, Vietnam’s civil wars over centuries may reflect some of
the same dynamics with territorial disputes over land previously occupied by
Khmer and conflict with the former Champa Kingdom in southern Vietnam, for
example.

1
Blaustein (2017) gives an account of some complexities of the North/South terminology and
the role researchers play in (re)constituting the identity of a place by prescribing it as Northern
or Southern.
xvi
Glossary

AUD Australian Dollar

Bộ Công an Ministry of Public Security (MPS)

Công an Public Security/security services/police

Cảnh sát Police

Xã/Phường Commune/Ward

Công an phường/Xã Commune/ward police station

Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam Vietnamese Communist Party

Đổi Mới Economic renovation

DRV Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Đồng (đ) (Vietnamese) Currency

Học viện Cảnh sát nhân dân People’s Police Academy

GPD General Police Department

Hiệp sĩ đường phố Street Knights (A type of neighbourhood

patrol)

Hộ khẩu Household Registration System

Hiếu thảo Filial piety

Lý do Rationale

Linh hoạt Flexible

MPS Ministry of Public Security

PPA People’s Police Academy

PPU People’s Police University

PPF People’s Police Force

(P)PSF (People’s) Public Security Forces

RV Republic of Vietnam

VFF Vietnam Fatherland Front

VCP Vietnamese Communist Party

VNĐ Vietnamese Đồng (Currency)

xvii
Chapter 1: Thesis overview

Introduction

This is a study of policing in Vietnam. The country is among the fastest growing
economies in Asia and has a stake in disputed territories in the East Sea which
is currently a fragile area of military and diplomatic contest. Domestic security is
an imperative for the nation’s stability, but what do we know about the institutions
who police the country’s interior, and the people who work for them? The study
examines Vietnam’s public police or those who most resemble the uniformed
police in other jurisdictions – at least according to our modern understanding of
police.

The participation of women in law enforcement has been identified as key to

peace and security in the Asia-Pacific (and elsewhere) (True, 2016) although
empirical research on women in policing has been marginalised. This thesis has
a focus on gender which explores the challenges for women’s participation in
policing in Vietnam.

The study adopted an ethnographic approach to explore the nature of policing

and police culture in Vietnam. It explores these in the context of the country’s
unique history – particularly the influences of Confucianism, colonisation,
communism and capitalism – through investigating relationships between the
police, political system, broad societal culture, legal frameworks, organisations,
the community, and gender as a social institution.

The study addresses the following questions:

1. What are the historical, political, economic, social and cultural influences
which shape policing and police culture in Vietnam?
2. How do structural and cultural influences affect the nature of women's
inclusion in policing in Vietnam?
3. What are the theoretical and policy implications of the findings?

1
An ethnographic approach is consistent with a tradition of other police scholars
who value the contribution of observation of police in order to understand policing
from the perspective of those who have adopted it as their occupation. In his
study of police socialisation in the United States, Van Maanen (1973, p. 5) argued
that, in order to ‘gain insight into the police environment, researchers must
penetrate the official smokescreen and observe directly the social action in social
situations which, in the final analysis, represents the reality of police work’.
According to Reeves, Kuper and Hodges (2008), ‘the central aim of ethnography
is to provide rich, holistic insights into people’s views and actions, as well as the
nature (that is sights, sounds) of the location they inhabit, through the collection
of detailed observations and interviews’; thus, interviews may be a combination
of formal, informal, structured, semi-structured or opportunistic exchanges
between the researcher and participants.

This research aims to contribute to a Southern perspective of policing. Most

studies of police in the English language literature are from the global North, with
a few exceptions. For example, David Bayley (1976, p. ix) prefaces his
comparative research by stating that it was undertaken with a view to ‘learn about
the police problems of the United States by studying Japanese police institutions’.
He stresses that examining another culture enables us to reflect on our own
cultures, transforming the received norms into something recognisable and
obvious (Bayley, 1976). Whilst I have reflected a great deal on my own
experiences as a police officer in Australia, this study set out to explore whether
assumptions drawn from Anglo-American policing are useful in trying to
understand policing in non-Western countries, specifically Vietnam and, in turn,
whether studying Vietnamese policing can contribute to an understanding of
policing elsewhere.

In this century, empirical studies on policing began to emerge from outside the
global North which drew attention to the influences of political regime change and
the challenges of policing in unstable environments and transitioning economies
(Blaustein, 2015; Faull, 2018; Marks, 2005). For example, Marks’ (2005) study of
the Durban Public Order Police in South Africa was important because it
foreshadowed possibilities for real reform of a police culture amid difficult

2
circumstances. She is optimistic, but cautiously so, noting that wider structural
conditions can limit the scope for some changes in police culture and practice to
occur and be sustained (Marks, 2005). This accords a view of colonial policing
reforms which suggests training and specialisation do not necessarily contain the
use of unlawful violence because police are exposed to wider social conditions
which shape their actions (Blanchard, Deluermoz, & Glasman, 2011).

This research was inspired by scholarship on policing (largely from the UK, US,
Canada and Australia) that provided frameworks for exploring diversity in
policing. These frameworks help us to understand that police agencies comprise
a range of sub-cultures which can be differentiated by, for example, officer
orientation or style (Reiner, 2010), street-level or managerial roles (Reuss-Ianni,
1983), duties (Ericson, 1981, 1982; Hobbs, 1988; Young, 1991), and location
(Cain, 1973; Loftus, 2009). Although the present study is not comparative, the
impetus came from a curiosity about what drives police behaviour and the extent
to which police officers have a shared culture across national borders.

There is much to learn from policing research outside the Anglosphere, including
continental Europe and colonial policing regimes. In La professionnalisation
policière en situation coloniale, Blanchard et al., (2011) declare that police
professionalisation or reform is not necessarily a determinate or linear process in
pursuit of progress towards an ideal. The study of policing outside the global
North can therefore provide new insights on different institutional arrangements
and policing styles which can contribute valuably to the intellectual discourse
about policing generally. The significance of ‘place’ in the production of policing
knowledge, thus, comes to the fore.

Police, place and the production of policing knowledge

A familiar conceptualisation of what or who constitutes the ‘police’ is provided by

Reiner (2010, p. 3) who describes the police as ‘primarily a body of people
patrolling public places in blue uniforms, with a broad mandate of crime control,
order maintenance and some negotiable social service functions’. The function
of ‘policing’, however, can be carried out formally or informally by myriad agents
as part of public or private institutions of social control (Reiner, 2010).
3
Consequently, wider social and political systems shape the nature of policing in
particular places (Van Dijk, Hoogewoning, & Punch, 2015). Paying attention to
place is important because most policing literature is based on a narrow range of
locations and cultures, not only preoccupied with the global North, but also Anglo-
American in focus. Whilst such literature usually does not openly make claims of
universal validity, it often does so by implication, either by not being interested in
what happens elsewhere or assuming that Anglo-America is further along an
inevitable road of progress than in other jurisdictions.

One example of how 1960s US policing concerns of Northern policing scholarship

have overshadowed alternative approaches is the focus on differential
enforcement of the law, particularly in relation to racial minorities (Sherman,
1984). Goldstein (1960) explained why total enforcement is impossible and full
enforcement is unrealistic, thus, justifying discretionary practices but with
necessary oversight. Revelations by the American Bar Association regarding the
pervasive exercise of police discretion ‘shocked legal scholars’, though confirmed
claims by activists that black Americans were more likely to be arrested than
whites (Sherman, 1984, p. 65). These studies ‘discovering’ the use of discretion
in the 1950s-60s was, according to Sherman (1984), a perplexing ‘scientific boon’
because if police saw their role as one of crime control, differential enforcement
of the law could be justified empirically and be at odds with the (ideal) view that
the law should be applied without discrimination. For example, Sherman (1984)
refers to a scenario where police action could potentially be differentiated for
employed versus unemployed men if the outcomes for both categories
contributed to reducing crime.

Elsewhere, approaches to policing developed very differently. In Taiwan, for

example, the police have, since 1945, been trained on the ideological principles
— based on teachings from Chiang Kai-Shek (and Sun Yat-Sen) — that underpin
their practice (J. T. Martin, 2014). The following excerpt from a Taiwanese police
textbook highlights a markedly different policing approach where police are more
enmeshed in collective welfare:

The police role is not merely a passive maintenance of

social peace and order. The four great responsibilities of
4
 “Governing, Teaching, Nurturing, and Protecting” are
placed on their person. In everything they do they must
embody the standard, guiding the people in life-activities
and improving social customs and habits, allowing the
average person to become a good citizen, and allowing the
average society to progress and improve, to become a new
society. Management and education are combined, with the
psychology of a father or mother’s love for their son or
daughter, the police teach and protect the masses, allowing
them to unconsciously come to cherish virtue and respect
authority. Guiding and teaching the masses with an attitude
and language of the dignity and respect: only when this is
achieved can one truly be counted as real police. (Chen Y.
1945, p. 2 cited in J. T. Martin, 2014)

The role of police in ‘teaching’ and ‘nurturing’ implies that a crucial aspect of
policing is a malleability in police practice. From this excerpt, we can begin to
consider the implications for a different thematic trajectory among dominant
policing scholarship had it originated in a communal or (post-) Confucian culture.
It also provides a different account of what constitutes ‘real’ policing and even
has correlations with the Reithian (English) perspective that policing should be
more about prevention than detection (Reith, 1956).

The extent to which broader social and cultural environments shape police
occupational cultures has been the subject of comparative studies with a range
of foci (for example, Banton, 1964; Bayley, 1976, 1990; Cassan, 2010; Choi &
Lee, 2016; Chu, 2017; Jiao, 2001; Sheptycki, 1999; Sun & Chu, 2006). The
nature of policing often takes on various forms depending on the history and
development of institutions and the broader social context. In his comparative
study of the ideology of democratic policing, J. T. Martin (2014) describes four
different styles which emerged in America, Britain, France and Taiwan. He argues
that America ‘valourizes the practical wisdom of law in action over the formal logic
of law on the books’ which contrasts with the French emphasis on ‘administrative
formalism and the civil law ideal’ (J. T. Martin, 2014, p. 470). Whilst the

5
foundations of British ‘policing by consent’ appealed to a liberal tradition and
democratic sensibilities (J. T. Martin, 2014, p. 470), ‘policing of virtue’ is the
overriding police ideology in East Asia (2014, p. 475). The socialisation process
into specific legal cultures and social norms begins in a person’s early years as
citizen. Although officers are acculturated into occupational and organisational
rules as they join the police, as Chan (1997) points out, these structures are
amenable to change. Individuals have agency to act outside or resist cultural
influences. This explains how cultural variations occur within broader ideologies
of policing. Certainly, the case of Taiwan is a recent example where police have
had to adjust to change from authoritarian to democratic governance (J. T. Martin,
2006).

Rationale for the study

Globally, the role of police is becoming more complex and subject to increasing
scrutiny. Technological advances mean the terrain of policing is no longer just the
tangible but includes an online space which presents both challenges and
opportunities. As an aspiring policing scholar, I am curious to explore how ideas
about police and policing fit with those of their peers with very different histories
and structural conditions outside the global North.

Across global jurisdictions there are some starkly different conditions under which
police work. For example, in the England, the home of the modern police model
attributed to Sir Robert Peel (Lentz & Chaires, 2007), the rise of social media
(specifically Twitter) has led to a new form of openness about internal issues
(Hesketh & Williams, 2017). It has been intriguing to watch serving and retired
police (as well as other stakeholders) publicise grievances and being openly
critical of police leaders, politicians and other service providers – in the main,
without negative consequences. I wondered to what extent this openness reflects
a new aspect of British police culture?

In contrast, expressing derogatory views about government decisions or leaders

in Vietnam could land one in prison. In July 2018, the Minister for Information and
Communications fined an online news outlet US$9,500 and suspended it for three
months for ‘splitting national unity’ by (apparently) misquoting a state official and
6
publishing reader comments on an article in 2017 (Tuổi Trẻ News, 2018), which
referred to a North-South power imbalance. What makes this punishment more
interesting is that the major media outlet is state-owned and run by an arm of the
Communist Party – the Hồ Chí Minh Youth Union – which demonstrates that even
this affiliation offers no protection. 2 In my observation, Vietnamese police
criticisms of state affairs on social media have been rare. An officer explained to
me that gripes against the organisation or its decision-makers should be handled
in private. The stark differences between the two approaches demonstrate that
norms of police practice necessarily vary considerably between a democratic and
a one-party political system.

A further entrée to the study of police cultures, for me, came by way of interest in
the variations and similarities with routine or mundane (rather than exceptional or
controversial) aspects of police work in non-Western countries. This vantage
point also piqued the interest of French scholars examining the historiography of
colonial policing in the former colonies on the African continent (Blanchard &
Glasman, 2012). Blanchard and Glasman (2012, p. 41) urged other researchers
to ‘banaliser l’histoire de la police coloniale’ (banalise [normalise, render banal]
the history of colonial policing) as they would police in the metropole. Whilst a
colonial past cannot be separated from the present, Blanchard and Glasman
(2012) argue for an examination of colonial policing which is not bound by
assumptions tied to colonial categories. Similarly, this study set out to explore the
utility of Anglo-American literature for understanding policing in Vietnam, as well
as interrogate possibilities for new understandings of police culture.

The paucity of empirical research on Vietnamese policing provides a

considerable opportunity for scholars to make an original contribution. It is
important to note that, in the wake of the Communist victories in 1954 and 1975,
many documentary records and sources were destroyed or re-written to present
an official narrative to unite the country and position the Communist Party at the
centre of the state’s identity (Lucius, 2009; Pelley, 2002). Sidel (2008) refers to
the dearth of literature in Vietnam as a result of decades of post-war isolation

2
Within one week of this report, the English language website of Tuổi Trẻ News used in this
citation was also suspended for three months with the homepage displaying a message that it
was ‘down for maintenance’ and will be back online in October 2018.
7
resulting from both US-led embargoes and a local government protective of
foreign interference after protracted occupation.

Formal research in Vietnam remains restricted and controlled, requiring relevant

approval (from Government or Party) and restrictions on access to crime statistics
as state secrets also limits meaningful or comparative analyses (Cox, 2012). With
respect to criminological research, given its nature is often to investigate state
responses to crime, critical exploration of these issues is limited: ‘Criminology is
the preserve of politically-controlled police academies’ (Cox 2010, p. 229).
Belknap (2016, p. 253) conducted a review on Asian criminological publications
by country using ISI Web of Science data (and a second data set from the Asian
Journal of Criminology) which showed more than half of the original articles
included in her samples were published after 2009 with China, Japan, South
Korea, India, and Russia, respectively, having the highest representation among
‘traditional criminology and crime control’. Belknap (2016) removed Vietnam (and
Afghanistan and Iraq) from the analysis because the studies referred to US war
veterans who had engaged in crime-related conduct as part of their post-war
experience, thus, unfairly skewing the results for useful comparison. Belknap
(2016) also noted that the AJC is not included in the ISI Web of Science index,
pointing out that this in itself can bias searches towards Western or global North
criminology.

Although police are at the frontline of responding to crime and public safety issues
amid rapid social and economic change, to date there are few studies examining
how police officers in Vietnam are trained in order to adapt to and cope with the
pressures of contemporary policing, including adapting to the internal police
organisational environment. Lessons to reform police are being imported from
Western police forces and tertiary training institutions without first determining
through empirical investigation the extent to which police culture is shared or
dissimilar. If the latter is the case, many Western-based learnings may be
redundant in the Vietnamese context. This research aims to elucidate the extent
of shared police culture so that future engagement between Vietnamese police

8
and international partners can be appropriately adapted and effectively
implemented to better suit the needs of the Vietnamese police.

Whilst some aspects of Vietnamese society have been exposed to academic and
international scrutiny in recent decades, policing norms and structures remain
opaque. Scholarship on policing in Vietnam available in the English language
literature is limited. A notable contribution from Anderson (2015) provides insights
into the colonial policing regime under the French (1860s-1920s), noting
difficulties in recruitment and remuneration which were blamed for the sub-
standard conduct of both French and enlisted (subordinate) local Vietnamese.
Her archival research uncovered sympathy from a contributor to a 1907 edition
of the Bulletin of the Committee of French Asia (Bulletin du Comité de l'Asie
française) for underpaid French officers who engaged in corruption to subsidise
their lowly income (M. L. Anderson, 2015, p. 84).

The People’s Police Force is a relatively young institution established by Hồ Chí

Minh on the 19th of August 1945 (initially as the Tonkin Security Police) to ‘protect
the revolutionary government’ (Hanoi Police Museum, 2017). Thayer (2014)
recently provided an account of ‘The Apparatus of Authoritarian Rule’, and
Grossheim (2018, p. 440) presented an account of presentational strategies by
Public Security Forces which, he argues, aim to ‘actively propagate a sacred and
romanticized image’. However, perhaps some of the most important contributions
to understanding policing in Vietnam in its current form are made by the
meticulous work by Koh (2001, 2004a, 2004b, 2006) who was able to interview
and observe ward-level authorities (including police) in their responses to crime,
social order and bureaucratic functions. Koh (2006) highlighted that state-society
relations operate through ‘control and mediation’. He argued that whilst some
aspects of life in Vietnam are tightly controlled, in other areas they experience
more freedom than elsewhere through the ability to negotiate with local
authorities and avoid punishments for transgressions due to an inefficient
bureaucracy (Koh, 2006). Granting that times change, an analysis of recent
controls (see Chapters 2 and 5) of internet access and usage may warrant
revision of some aspects of life in Vietnam in the decade or more since Koh’s
research.
9
Overview of the chapters

The early chapters of this thesis examine Vietnamese history and culture and
outline the analytical framework.

Chapter 2, Conflict, continuity and change: shaping Vietnam and contemporary

policing provides an overview of key elements of Vietnamese history. The chapter
covers territorial disputes, invasions and the re-unification of North and South
Vietnam. The transition to a market economy transformed the country’s legal
institutions, including the role of the police and the way Vietnamese cultural
norms mediate police practices around social control and responses to crime.

Chapter 3, A framework for a Southern Policing perspective introduces the

conceptual framework adopted in this thesis and underscores the asymmetry of
scholarship between the global North and South as described in Connell’s (2007)
Southern Theory. The chapter summarises the development of police cultural
studies showing how understandings have expanded from being perceived as a
monolithic bureaucratic organisation, to an occupation with a range of sub-
cultures which are amenable to change. The framework draws on Chan’s (1997;
2003) interactive model of police culture. She proposed a new theoretical
framework which draws on Bourdieu’s (1990a) social theory of the field (structural
environment) and habitus (cultural knowledge) to conceptualise the production of
police culture. Chan et al. (2003) describe how policing and police exist in a ‘field
of power’, referring to the (dominant) position of the police in this space, but also
as a field of struggle inherent in all ‘social arrangements’ (Swartz, 1997, p. 136).
The field for police reflects the social, political and legal capital (resource or
status) available to them – both as individuals and as an organisation (2003, p.
25).

Chapter 4, Police ethnography in the global South: methodology and ethics

describes the methodology used in this study. Thirty-seven formal interviews with
police students and officers were undertaken (some multiple times), and
observation of police undertaken mainly at the People’s Police Academy (PPA)
in Hanoi over a six-month period in 2016 and a brief period in 2017. Other
stakeholders were interviewed from non-government organisations, academia
and international agencies. Ethics approval was granted from the University of
10
New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW), and the Institute for Social Development
Studies, Hanoi. Approval was granted at Ministerial level from the Ministry of
Public Security (MPS) and the President (Rector) of the People’s Police Academy
(PPA). In order to receive approval to conduct the study, I had to agree to certain
conditions set by the police. Some conditions would be unacceptable in
researching a Western police force. However, these were, firstly, non-negotiable,
so any research on Vietnamese policing would be subject to them; and, secondly,
the conditions have to be set in the context of Vietnamese norms, in which there
is typically a gap between rule and practice. The chapter details the processes
involved in negotiating and undertaking the research as well as implications for
methodology, ethics and data integrity.

Chapter 5, Overview of police history, structures and organisation in Vietnam

highlights the historical and cultural context of policing. The chapter begins by
detailing the role of police in the fight for independence from foreign powers. It
describes the explicit links between police and the political system with excerpts
from the Constitution, legislation and codes of ethics. It describes the structure of
the People’s Police Force, rank hierarchy and recruitment processes and the
connection between police education and academia. The chapter concludes by
highlighting how these structural dimensions shape the field for policing in
Vietnam.

Chapter 6, Learning to be a police officer explores ways students and officers

experience the police organisation and navigate careers. The chapter begins by
describing the nature of education in Vietnam and motivations for people to apply
to study at the Police Academy and explores the structure and core themes of
the Bachelor of Policing, specifically the ‘general’ and ‘professional’ curriculum.
The data reveal the importance of ‘morality’ as a concept which officers draw on
to make decisions about the conduct of themselves and others. In addition,
‘culture’ was presented as a useful construct in which to actively shape police
attitudes and socialise them into the occupation. The implications of the
professional curriculum are discussed with respect to how it shapes police work
and the possibilities for different sub-cultures.

11
Chapter 7, Bamboo, boundaries and benevolence: police culture, norms and
practices in transition examines ways police relate to the community and
understand their role as police officers. Police officers expressed the importance
of being ‘flexible’ or using discretion as key tools in policing the community. This
was facilitated by a style of policing which blurred public and private space.
However, access to private space did not necessarily lend itself to an over-
policing of the domestic sphere, especially where male violence against women
was concerned.

Chapter 8, Matriarchy, mobilisation and modern women in the Vietnamese Police

Force looks at the multiple and often conflicting representations of women in
history, folklore and pop culture. Expectations of women in this culture prioritises
motherhood and marriage as social accomplishments. These family obligations
were described by both men and women as to why women were less suited for
a policing career, although there were exceptions.

In the final Chapter, I identify key dimensions in the field of policing uncovered in
the previous chapters. I highlight how assumptions based on police scholarship
do not necessarily apply to understanding policing in Vietnam. Specifically, I
describe aspects of the field which may contribute to a police culture which are
either shared or distinct from Western conceptualisations. I highlight how
socialisation includes an officer’s childhood, education, family upbringing and
social obligations which shape the parameters for changing or sustaining police
culture. I also locate gendered recruitment and work policies in the broader
literature on women in policing. In the conclusion chapter, I also reflect on the
contributions of this study to scholarship on police ethnography. I discuss the
fluidity of researcher positionality and how the nature of scholarly inquiry can
shape research outcomes. Furthermore, that the concept of ‘culture’ in policing
research can be a useful tool for inquiry and is not necessarily a pejorative term
in some contexts.

This thesis offers an original contribution to the English language empirical

literature on Vietnamese policing, police culture, socialisation and gender. In
addition, it provides a framework for a Southern Policing perspective which
recommends a reflexive approach to the study of policing outside the global North
12
in order to elicit new variables for the study of policing in different cultural settings.
The study draws attention to different expectations and incentives for pursuing a
police career and the way policing functions are executed.

The following chapter will provide a brief account of selected aspects of

Vietnamese history and culture which shape the contemporary environment in
which police operate.

13
Chapter 2: Conflict, continuity and change: shaping Vietnam
and contemporary policing

Figure 1. Map of Vietnam 3

3
Including disputed territories, Spratly Islands (Trường Sa) and Paracel Islands (Hoàng Sa)
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2018).
14
Introduction

The territory of modern Vietnam is a seahorse-shaped strip of land in Southeast

Asia. At the crown of the figurative seahorse to the east is the limestone of the
iconic Hạ Long Bay, while to the west is the famous site of colonial French defeat
in the mountains of Điện Biên Phủ. The extent of remote, dense forests prompts
this upper region to be characterised as the ‘lungs’ of the north, an apt metaphor
given they flank the township of Sa Pa at the nation’s coronet renowned for
hillsides terraced with rice paddies with the appearance of lime-coloured ribbing.
Commencing around the respiratory tract of the seahorse-shape is 3,444
kilometres of coastline where littoral provinces descend past middle Vietnam’s
villages and cities reliant on the fishing industry and seafaring trade routes and
along a belly-like protrusion of land eastward. The nation’s south experiences a
more tropical climate and is where the Mekong River, after passing through five
countries, finishes its journey and exits out to sea, anchoring the base of Vietnam
at the point where mainland and maritime Southeast Asia meet.

The lands in northern Vietnam4 where indigenous Vietnamese people were first
chronicled were the site for many experiences of invasion. Nowadays, Vietnam
is a densely populated country with over 90 million people living within an area of
331,210 square kilometres (General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2016). Its
shoreline borders the Gulf of Thailand, the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China
Sea. It is bordered by China to the north, and Cambodia and Laos to the west
and northwest, respectively. However, the seahorse-shaped country as it is now
recognised first took form in 1802 (Goscha, 2016a).

Vietnam’s history of territorial disputes has contributed to a culture characterised

by concern about external threats by foreign powers (Gillen, 2011; Lucius, 2009).
The conflicts have resulted in a unique historical and cultural context of struggle
for identity, independence and internal security. This has produced a national
security apparatus which draws on a range of sources for its traditions. One arm
of this apparatus is the national police organisation, the People’s Police Force

4
‘Vietnam’ was not used to refer to the current territory until the early 19th century. See Dutton
et al. (2012) Sources of Vietnamese Tradition for chronology and description of the variance of
what is regarded as ‘Vietnamese’.
15
(Lực lượng Cảnh sát nhân dân). Its structures, procedures and activities all carry
the impact of Vietnam’s contested geography. This chapter will explore how the
experiences of early and modern Vietnam have shaped the environment for
contemporary policing, especially in Hanoi.

Indigeneity, invasion and identity

The origins of the Vietnamese people can be traced to the Red River Delta over
2,000 years ago, which now hosts Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. The term
‘Vietnamese’ usually refers to people from the lowland ethnic Kinh.5 There are 53
ethnic minorities in Vietnam.6 Around 221 BCE, the Red River Delta area was
colonised by a Chinese ancestral clan who migrated from north of the Yangtze
River southward and expanded into what is now known as northern Vietnam (G.
E. Dutton et al., 2012). Some of the early periods of Chinese presence in northern
Vietnam are described as ‘loose and relatively unobtrusive’ (G. E. Dutton et al.,
2012, p. 9), but the retrospective official Vietnamese view characterises this
period as a time of foreign invasion. What is uncontested is that, across these
1,000 years, there were periods where the Chinese held northern Vietnam
continuously for several centuries. These relatively stable years contributed to
entrenching Chinese customs and cultural influences as core to northern
Vietnamese values and way of life (Tran Thi Que, 1995); this included
approaches to security. It was not until 939 CE that the Vietnamese restored
indigenous rule in north Vietnam (Tran Thi Que, 1995). In the south, by contrast,
influences were much more fluid and civilisations that inhabited the region across
this time included an Indianised kingdom known as Fu-nan, the Hindu kingdom
of Champa and Khmer (Beresford, 1988). This meant that the south and the north
developed some distinct cultures and ways of thinking and of being ‘Vietnamese’
(Beresford, 1989; Goscha, 2016a; Tài, 2001).7

5
This research is based on police in Hanoi, thus, focus on what is ‘Vietnamese’ centres around
lowland ethnic Kinh. Dutton et al. (2012) provide an explanation of why the term ‘Vietnamese’ is
used as a broad descriptor for history and culture despite its being a ‘blended’ story.
6
Nowadays, these diverse groups live mostly in mountainous and remote areas after being
forced out of lowlands amid anti-colonial wars in the 20th century.
7
See Goscha (2016a) The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam for commentary about conflict,
diversity and division in ‘Vietnam’ from the 15th century onwards.
16
Vietnam underwent years of civil war with various dynasties seizing power and
seeking to establish central rule over the country. There was still instability when,
in the 1800s, trade with China became an important source of revenue for the
British and French imperialists. Vietnam’s former ruler, Nguyễn Ánh (also known
as Gia Long), had permitted foreign trade and missionary delegations to Vietnam,
but his successors began to reject foreign access to Vietnamese ports which the
French saw as key in their bid for trade with China (Beresford, 1988). The French
were initially involved in the fighting in central Vietnam when a successor of the
Nguyen family dynasty, Nguyen Anh, sought refuge with a French bishop,
Pigneau de Behaine, in south Vietnam following their defeat in the Tây Sơn
rebellion of 1765–1773 (Beresford, 1988, p. 5). Nguyen Anh enlisted the help of
the French to regain control, eventually proclaiming himself emperor (using the
name Gia Long) of Vietnam which stretched from the Chinese to the Cambodian
borders. Though the French had established Catholic missionaries and trade
organisations in Vietnam from as early as the mid-17th century, it was not until
1850 that the French conquest of Vietnam began, with the protection of the
Vietnamese Catholics serving as a pretext for occupation and conquest
(Logevall, 2012, p. 5). In 1861, the French navy took Sài Gòn and three adjacent
provinces by force, and by 1867, the French had established the colony of
Cochinchina, which surrounded the Mekong Delta. Over the next two decades,
the French also created two protectorates in central and northern Vietnam
(Annam and Tonkin, respectively) (Beresford, 1988; Goscha, 2016a). The region
was both a French asset and a site of ongoing Vietnamese resistance to foreign
intervention.

A brief timeline between 1920 and 1976 illustrates the blend of cultural, religious
and political influences that have characterised Vietnam’s search for sovereignty.
During the period 1920–1940, anti-colonial movements gradually formalised into
political parties with a nationalist or communist focus. According to Beresford
(1988, pp. 5–6), French colonisation initiated ‘fundamental social change in
Indochina’. She credits the destruction of Vietnamese social organisation as the
genesis of communist-led resistance. One example of this is the colonial
administration’s disruption of the traditional social structure which had allowed
villages to operate with substantial autonomy from central authorities, provided
17
they paid tax and supplied soldiers or labourers when needed (Beresford, 1988).
This led to many decades of war between France and local Vietnamese forces.
It also gave rise to, particularly in the north, the slow consolidation of communist-
focused resistance united against foreign intervention.

On February 3, 1930, the Vietnamese Communist Party (Đảng Cộng sản Việt
Nam) (VCP) was officially established following the merger of three communist
parties to form a national organisation. Eight months later, the VCP changed its
name to the Indochinese Communist Party (Đảng Cộng sản Đông Dương) (ICP)
to draw attention to and express support for the international nature of class
struggle (Beresford, 1988, p. 13). The merger was instigated by Hồ Chí Minh to
consolidate anti-colonial support. After studying and being politically engaged in
France, Russia and China, he coordinated (with other revolutionaries) a strategy
from outside Indochina until his return in 1941 to fight the Japanese invaders and
the French colonialists. Goscha (2016a) credits Hồ Chí Minh’s multilingual talents
(Chinese, French, Russian, English and Thai) for helping him keep abreast of
news from various channels and exposed to a range of strategic sources. This is
another example of the way Vietnam has been influenced through interaction and
engagement with foreign ideas.

In August 1945, the VCP overthrew the French in Hanoi and on September 2 Hồ
Chí Minh declared independence. The victory brought together communist
supporters and religious leaders (including Vietnamese Catholics, Buddhists and
Cao Đài supporters and Hòa Hảo followers) who sought national independence,
despite an uneasy relationship between them (Goscha, 2016a, p. 223). But the
victory was brief and in 1946 the French military regained control (Thayer, 2010,
p. 425). In 1954 the VCP finally defeated the French in the battle at Điện Biên
Phủ, gained full political control over the north, and established the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam (DRV). At the time of the defeat, a conference was being
held in Geneva to try to bring an end to the conflict in Indochina. The DRV wanted
full control over the south as well but the country was divided at the 17th parallel
of latitude and the Republic of Vietnam (RV) (South Vietnam) came into being a
year later (Beresford, 1988). The Geneva Agreement allowed free movement
between the north and south for 300 days, after which a general election would

18
be held to determine a single government. This, however, did not occur (V. C.
Nguyen, 1983).

The Geneva Agreement enabled the evacuation of Vietnamese Catholics from

the north to the south because the new Marxist-Leninist ideology was seen as
incompatible with religious worship (V. C. Nguyen, 1983). Furthermore, Catholics
were often the strongest opposition to the implementation of land reforms in the
wake of the Geneva Agreement (V. C. Nguyen, 1983) and more recently, in 2006,
Catholic priests petitioned for democratic reforms (Hayton, 2010; Thayer, 2009a).

The VCP set out to pursue reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1959,
firstly by strengthening the underground communist movement, and then by
military force in 1964 (Thayer, 2010). The bruising defeat of the French in the
1950s had been masterminded by General Võ Nguyên Giáp. He warned the VCP
that the United States would be a greater military test for Vietnam than the
French, and that better trained soldiers and modern weapons would be needed
(Logevall, 2012, p. 711). The United States military intervention in Vietnam
escalated in 1965 when President Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder.
Lasting until October 1968, this involved a large-scale aerial bombing campaign
across Vietnam (Logevall, 2012, p. 712). On March 8, 1965, U.S. combat
divisions landed near Đà Nẵng. This escalation by the United States enabled the
VCP to rouse popular support based on patriotism and nationalism and to shore
up their political legitimacy as protectors against foreign aggression. In contrast,
the narrative from the South Vietnamese government was that of civil war, rather
than of opposing an external enemy (Tài, 2001). In 1969, the DRV and the United
States government (acting on behalf of the Republic of Vietnam) commenced
peace negotiations in Paris, but failed to reach an agreement (Beresford, 1988).

On April 30, 1975, communist forces took the southern headquarters in Sài Gòn,
a metropolis which would later be renamed Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (Hồ Chí Minh
City) in honour of the communist leader who died in 1969 aged 79. The
Vietnamese casualties from both north and south totalled over three million with
several hundreds of thousands unaccounted for (Tài, 2001). The northern forces
deployed almost one million soldiers and personnel between 1965 and 1975,

19
seeking to establish northern control and customs in the south after their military
victory (Goscha, 2016a).

The recency of French colonialism in Southeast Asia as well as imagery and

literature of the Vietnam-American War have sometimes rendered Vietnam’s pre-
modern history invisible. Vietnam was certainly a victim of the wave of empire
from the global North, peaking in the 19th century, but prior to that, and for much
longer, it was victim to an imperialist venture by its Chinese neighbours who are
also categorised as part of the global South. In addition, colonisation and
population displacement have occurred within Vietnam itself and along its
borders by Vietnamese with respect to territorial claims (especially with
Cambodia) and internally (e.g., southward into the Champa kingdom in central
Vietnam) (Goscha, 2016b). Chinese cultural influences in Vietnam are further
discussed in the section Social control, cultivating proper conduct and culture.

Though the Communist Government was established in North Vietnam in 1954,

the country remained at war with the South until 1976.8 A united Vietnam has
existed for just over 40 years and despite its unified appearance, the country’s
geography and subsequent territorial disputes have resulted in a search for
identity. Vietnam is comprised of a blend of cultural, religious, political influences
(M. McLeod & Nguyen, 2001) which plays out differently across north and south
divides. Northern Vietnam’s proximity to China has seen some shared features
with that country, both culturally and practically (Tài, 2001). The south developed
differently due to trade with regional neighbours, which exposed the population
to more diverse cultures, religions and economic relations (Beresford, 1989; Tài,
2001). These influences can be seen in some approaches to public security and
social order in Hanoi, as will be illustrated throughout this thesis.

Migration and markets

Vietnam’s mountains and seas present both obstacles and opportunities for trade
and contact with external populaces. Natural resources drew Chinese migration

8
Vietnam was involved in border conflicts with Cambodia and China in 1978 and 1979.
20
southward with chronicles showing that, in 231 CE, the availability of exotic goods
were exploited for revenue, as the following record indicates: ‘This place is
famous for precious rarities from afar: pearls, incense, drugs, elephant tusks,
rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, coral, lapis lazuli, parrots, kingfishers, peacocks,
rare and abundant treasures to satisfy all desires’ (Chen Shou, SBZ cited in G.
E. Dutton et al., 2012, p. 16). The early Chinese interest in taking advantage of
Vietnam’s natural resources is reflected in current debates regarding land use,
environment and wildlife protection.

There has been a long history in Vietnam of migration and invasion to take
advantage of natural resources for exportation. These invaders have been met
by an opposition that has been not only rebellious, but also very confrontational
and highly effective. In 231 CE, a Chinese official noted: ‘The local people easily
become rebellious and are difficult to pacify; district officials act dignified but are
careful not to provoke them’ (Chen Shou, SBZ cited in G. E. Dutton et al., 2012,
p. 15); the Chinese were not to be defeated until 600 years later. One thousand
years after expelling the Chinese, Vietnamese people were forced to work on rice
and rubber plantations for the French colonial administration (Beresford, 1989).
The ‘brutal’ conditions inevitably resulted in runaways who were then pursued
and returned to their labour (Beresford, 1989). In 1927, one of the highest
mortality rates for contract labour in northern Vietnam was reported at 5.4 per
cent (Rapports au Grand Conseil, 1930, p. 177 cited in Beresford, 1989, p. 42).
Consequently, not only were Vietnam’s natural resources exploited, but the cost
of production was also counted in human lives.

Beginning in the 1940s and 50s, the Marxist doctrine used to mobilise the
Vietnamese people to expel the French colonisers also formed the basis of
socialist economic reform. This was pursued through ‘land redistribution,
collectivization of agriculture, nationalization of industry, and the institution of
central economic planning’ (Thayer, 2010, p. 425). In 1975, Vietnam gained
independence and was closed off to foreign interference after prolonged fighting
with Chinese, Khmer, Japanese, French and American forces which came at the
cost of economic growth. In the late 1970s, ensuing border wars with Cambodia
and China placed pressure on the country’s socioeconomic development along

21
with the emerging failures of central economic planning (Thayer, 2010). The
economic model which was expanded to the south after 1975 was described as
contradictory to Vietnamese economic culture and preference, especially in the
south where enterprise had been more common (Beresford, 1989). Vietnam’s aid
from the Soviet Union was drying up and the country was falling behind the
economic growth witnessed in neighbouring countries (Beeson & Hung, 2012).
In 1986, at the 6th National Congress of the VCP, political leaders sanctioned
economic reforms, widely referred to as đổi mới (economic renovation) or a
socialist-oriented market economy, along with plans to integrate politically and
economically in the East Asian region and further abroad.

The stability in Vietnamese politics has been attributed to the success of đổi mới
in that the VCP’s hold on power meant economic change was controlled, subtle
and occurred largely within the operating – nominally communist – political
framework (Beeson & Hung, 2012; Nørland, Gates, & Vu, 1995). The VCP’s
strong control may have provided stability at a time when the Asian economic
crisis in 1997 may have thought to otherwise present a more ‘fluid and chaotic’
environment (Beeson & Hung, 2012, p. 541). Consequently, economic growth
became a central platform for bolstering the Party’s legitimacy.

In the 1990s, almost 60 per cent of the population were living in poverty with a
per capita income of less than USD $100 (World Bank, 2015). The economic
restructuring which commenced in the 1980s resulted in a per capita income of
over USD $2,000 with 9.8 per cent of the populous considered to be living poverty
in 2016 (World Bank, 2018). Economic reform set out to transition from a focus
on agriculture to increasing industry and manufacturing, including garment and
shoemaking, food processing, mining, machine building and mobile phones.
However, expanding demand for land to cater for the growing population,
industrialisation and agriculture needs has led to public concern regarding
associated environmental degradation (CECODES, 2018).

Foreign investment and international markets brought greater wealth to Vietnam,

but also instigated debates about the environmental costs. In particular, concern
regarding bauxite mining in central Vietnam has been credited with propelling the
organisation of civil society in Vietnam. A decade after deciding not to pursue
22
bauxite mining in central Vietnam due to severe damage to the environment and
local people, the government in 2001 overturned its decision in the context of
economic development (Vuvung, 2010). The project was a joint Vietnam-China
venture and although some within the VCP were against the project, an
agreement was reached for it to go ahead with caveats on enhancing
environmental protections. In a surprising move against the project, anti-bauxite
sentiment was dispatched to the National Assembly through a petition signed by
135 scholars and intellectuals who denigrated China’s approach to development
by arguing that it operated at the expense of the environment (Mydans, 2009).
The significance of the anti-bauxite coalition was that it not only unified a broad
range of interest groups apprehensive about national and human security issues,
but that it gave rise to a ‘mainstream elite civil society’ (Vuvung, 2010, p. 379)
who were critical of the government (Thayer, 2009a).

In 2009, amid concerns for the environment and population near the proposed
bauxite mine, an anti-China stance gathered pace. Concern surrounded the
potential influx of Chinese workers, distaste for hazardous imported Chinese
products, Chinese attacks on Vietnamese fisherman, and disputes over
sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) regarding areas with large energy
reserves. Major protests erupted across Vietnam in 2018 after the government
announced it would establish three special economic zones with 99 year leases
for foreign investors (Fawthrop, 2018). After the protests, the government said it
would revise the proposed legislation before putting it to the National Assembly.
The disruption highlights the ongoing tensions between Vietnam’s sovereignty,
anti-Chinese sentiment, economic development and environmental degradation.
The 2017 Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) reported that among
survey respondents poverty and environmental issues were the top concerns for
Vietnamese citizens (CECODES, 2018).

The market economy requires legal institutions to support the regulatory

framework – these institutions include the police. Where land clearing or seizures
for economic developments result in protests, the police are required to intervene,
which puts them between the people and the Party. The following section
discusses aspects of social and crime control in Vietnam. It explores historical

23
influences and provides a contemporary example of policing in which the
personal and professional not only intersect but may be leveraged in negotiating
state power.

Social control, cultivating proper conduct and culture

Approaches to social control developed in China over several thousand years

have some implications for understanding policing in Vietnam. McKernan and
McWhirter (2009) noted that Chinese scholarship on policing could be used to
draw inferences about law and order in Vietnam given the availability of literature
on Chinese society. In particular, during the Qin (221–206 BCE) and Han (206
BCE–220 CE) dynasties, a system of self-policing among groups of families was
instituted ‘based on principles of self-help and collective responsibility’ (Ma, 2008,
p. 15). Group members were obliged to apprehend fellow members if a crime was
committed – or else be subject to the same punishment which would have been
accorded to the person who committed the crime. Ma (2008) reports that severe
penalties were a successful incentive and group members reported crimes and
made apprehensions ‘diligently’. The communal dynamic was also sustained by
making criminal the failure to protect and assist a family network member who
had been the victim of crime (Liu, 1985, cited in Ma, 2008). Thus, policing has
been a collective practice since China’s earliest periods – regarded as
‘everyone’s business, starting with the self (cultivation) and ending with the family,
clan, or community (control)’ (Wong, 2012, p. 66).

The Confucian patriarchal system of governance determines lineage along male

lines. Each family unit, much like the state, was set up along patriarchal lines and
therefore mutually reinforcing. The familial structure, with a head of the family and
a specific order for other family members, was also replicated across the
community in bigger groupings but always with a structure in which the male head
held most power. It was in the interest of each family to contain acts of wrong-
doing, otherwise the head of the family could be forced to cede power to a larger
group which would diminish the standing of the family in question. In this sense,
there were incentives to self-policing and keeping transgressions local.
Furthermore, families and neighbourhoods were often reluctant to inform
authorities of wrongdoings because the recourse of the state was typically
24
physically harsh to the perpetrator and families would seek to protect them from
this severe punishment (M. R. Dutton, 1992, p. 3).

The importance of relationships in Vietnamese culture is also embedded in its

language. In Vietnamese, the speaker makes reference to themselves and others
in a way that ‘does not recognize the autonomy of the individual but instead
enmeshes each and every speaking self in webs of familial and quasi-familial
relationships’ (Tài, 2001, p. 168). Pronominals in Vietnamese language recognise
kinship ties, entrench age and social hierarchy, and, importantly, patriarchy
(Chew, 2011). In most situations respect for seniority would require a younger
woman to refer to an older man as anh (elder brother), and a younger man to
refer to an older woman as chị (elder sister). However, if an older woman is in a
romantic relationship with a younger man, the convention is that she still refer to
him as anh to denote his superior status. A further example of the primacy of
patrilineal ties is displayed through the positioning of relatives as inside kin and
outside kin, where paternal relatives occupy the ‘inside’ (nội) and maternal
relatives ‘outside’ (ngoài) (Tài, 2001). Forms of address are also an important
indicator of the regard in which a relationship is held – these may be used
affectionately and strategically, as exemplified by ‘Uncle Ho’ (Bác Hồ) who used
the term to emphasise family in mobilising the population to fight against
colonialism in the early 20th century (Chew, 2011). The use of kinship terms to
address people within a social network (for example, uncle bác or aunt cô) can
invoke connectedness alongside a respect for seniority, despite no blood
relations (Chew, 2011). The extent to which kinship forms of address are used
more broadly to refer to non-relatives is amenable to change, as are social and
political circumstances, although Pelley (2002, p. 159) notes their continued use
is due to the strength of family as a ‘legitimating device’ to harness a collective
disposition.

The influence of the Confucian ethic in Vietnam meant social order was reinforced
by promoting virtue and morality from a top-down, paternalistic government. In
1834, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang issued ‘Ten Moral Precepts’ which
were to be publicly recited each year by village heads, reflecting similar practices

25
in former Chinese dynasties (G. E. Dutton et al., 2012, pp. 306-307). The Ten
Moral Precepts were:9

1. Be sincere in all that you do.

2. Maintain an upright heart.
3. Hold fast to your proper profession.
4. Always practice frugality.
5. Keep virtuous customs.
6. Educate your children.
7. Respect the correct [Confucian] teachings.
8. Guard against licentiousness and evil.
9. Prudently adhere to the rules and laws.
10. Be generous in doing good.

This top-down approach to dictating proper behaviour and morality reflects a

coherent thread to present-day Vietnam in that ethical codes are used as a guide
for Communist Party members to develop and practice moral conduct. Hồ Chí
Minh expected members to ‘display higher knowledge and morality than ordinary
people’ and emphasised the moral authority of the Party (Gillespie, 2010, p. 136).

However, although some aspects of Vietnamese culture are seen as

continuations from the past, this ‘continuity thesis’ has been challenged by Ninh
(2002). She argued that colonisation and subsequent Communist Party
strategies to mobilise the population to defeat the French and promote a
particular political ideology resulted in significant transformations in Vietnamese
culture (Ninh, 2002). The mid-20th century saw debates about ridding Vietnam of
‘colonial vestiges’ and creating a ‘new’ country unmarked by foreigners (Ninh,
2002, p. 63). In Ninh’s (2002) analysis of these debates, she explores the
arguments among Vietnam’s literary elite where some contended there was no
‘Vietnamese’ culture because everything was inherited from the Chinese, the
West or other influences. What actually constituted ‘culture’ was also debated as
some saw it as ‘national achievements of international stature rather than as the
body of norms and traditions that nourished a society’ (Ninh, 2002, p. 57). In

9
Translated by George Dutton (G. E. Dutton et al., 2012, p. 307).
26
seeking intellectual support from the literary elite, the VCP published the ‘Theses
on Vietnamese Culture’ in 1943. According to Ninh (2002, p. 56), sympathetic
intellectual, Dang Thai Mai, urged his peers to accept that ‘art and literature must
be on the side of the working class and must be created to support the people’s
revolution’. The VCP established the Cultural Association for National Salvation
in 1943 to promote the Party’s platform.

Politburo chief and author of ‘Theses on Vietnamese Culture’ (Đề cương về văn
hóa Việt Nam), Trường Chinh, determined there were three main characteristics
of the new culture: scientific orientation (khoa học hóa), popularisation (đại chúng
hóa), and nationalisation (dân tộc hóa) (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam, 1943). Nguyen
Huu Dang and Nguyen Dinh Thi argued that the old culture was transmitted within
the family unit and in order to change culture the youth had to be educated outside
of the family. In destroying the past culture though, what was to replace it? Hoai
Thanh, also from the Cultural Association for National Salvation, suggested that
true Vietnamese culture was located in folk art and literature (Ninh, 2002).
Previously, Vietnam’s national culture referred to high culture inherited from the
Chinese. However, as Vietnam fought for independence, this high culture was
abandoned for being uncreative, and the essence of Vietnamese culture was
regarded as existing within popular culture (although ill-defined) which aligned
with efforts to focus on people and popularisation by the communists (Ninh,
2002). In the post-1975 era, the state continued to promote particular visions of
culture with a view to shaping it, including those of ethnic minorities, through
production of media and television screenings (Messier & Michaud, 2012).

Chinese influence has shaped many of Vietnam’s structures and systems.

Policing and crime control in early China relied on both harsh public physical
punishment (spectacle) carried out by the state and traditional Confucian notions
of ‘community mutuality’ (M. R. Dutton, 1992, p. 3). Dutton describes how the
latter contributed to social harmony through ‘an intricate web of relations, based
ultimately upon the family and policed by a labyrinth of mutually self-checking
units augmented by an advanced system of documentation’ (M. R. Dutton, 1992,
p. 3). The ‘technology’ used to police the public was called baojia (later hu kou 戶
籍). It was the first known system used to record the public and was the state’s

27
method for recording details of the populace to order and police the community,
through the family unit, and to encourage mutual aid (M. R. Dutton, 1992, p. 24).
The French colonial administration used a similar dossier system to that of the
Chinese to monitor and control the subjugated population. However, as Anderson
(2015, p. 291) concluded from her archival investigation into the French in
Vietnam, ‘what made the Sûreté police so formidable in the realm of politics was
less new technologies of power and more the police's effective use of the
collaborators and informants cited in intelligence reports, the quintessential
Sûreté document’. The French colonial police employed Vietnamese agents at
the lower levels and engaged in political policing in order to repress anti-colonial
sentiment, subsequently exposing the Vietnamese to a new form of policing
which blended the police and a political army (M. L. Anderson, 2015).

After 1954, the DRV continued a form of the household registration system known
as hộ khẩu (Vietnam's Household Registration System, 2016). It was
implemented in the north in 1955 and 1960 in urban and rural areas, respectively,
initially by communist party officials, but later this became the administrative
function of the police. The system was a method of surveillance used to identify
political dissidents in both the north and south through compilation of dossiers to
monitor the population (Hardy, 2001). After Vietnam was reunited in 1975 the
system was expanded throughout southern Vietnam.

The household became an even more important unit for social steering and
control with the introduction of merit certificates to reward good behaviour. To
promote preferred social customs (e.g., family stability) and political objectives,
the VCP introduced the New Cultured Families (Gia đình văn hóa mới) program
after the American War in 1975 (Bich, 1999). The Party introduced the social
program to socialise children to become good citizens and help the country
develop (Bich, 1999). The family remains an essential component for achieving
socio-economic goals for the country. In 2012, the Prime Minister endorsed the
Vietnam Family Development Strategy through 2020 with a Vision for 2030
(2012). One of the targets included in the strategy is that, by 2020, 85 per cent of
households will achieve the ‘cultured family’ standard. Local authorities and
neighbourhood groups gather annually to assess whether a family will be

28
awarded a Cultured Family certificate (Cox, 2010; Hayton, 2010). The criteria
have changed in emphasis over time but generally include: having a happy and
harmonious family, abiding by the two-child policy (unless in rural areas),
supporting neighbours and participating in community activities (Drummond &
Rydstrøm, 2004). This type of peer review is used to encourage individuals to be
law-abiding and conform to family – and by extrapolation community and societal
– standards.

In modern Vietnam, crime prevention and control continue to be promoted as a

collective endeavour. Article 46 of the Constitution places obligations on citizens
to ‘join in the safeguarding of national security, social order and safety and
conform to the established rules of public life’, which has implications for people
in different ways. For example, it has been interpreted by police as an obligation
that people who may be suspected of a crime should confess or provide
information about it, effectively denying them the right to silence and legal
representation despite some (limited) provisions in law (see Lam, 2016). Other
laws are more instructive as to how citizens should fulfil their obligations. For
example, illicit drug laws demand ‘drug addicts’ report themselves to their
employer or local Party People’s Committee to register for drug detoxification
(which may result in two years internment in a detention facility) (National
Assembly, 2008a, Article 26.1(a)). An example of the contemporary application
of the household registration system can be found in the policing of drug users
(Jardine, Crofts, Monaghan, & Morrow, 2012; Khuat et al., 2012). Police are
required to compile dossiers on drug users by visiting them and their families at
home (National Assembly, 2000).

The families of drug addicts are also required to report people who use drugs to
local authorities, monitor the person, and: ‘oversee, supervise, prevent and stop
the drug addict from illegally using narcotic substances or committing acts of
disturbing social order and safety’ (National Assembly, 2008a, Article 26.2).
People can be rewarded for compliance and punished for non-compliance
(National Assembly, 2008a, Article 52 & 53) although the consequences are
unspecified except that they may be handled administratively (National
Assembly, 2000) or under the Criminal Code.

29
The primacy of the rule of law as assumed in liberal Western democracies is not
neatly transferrable to Vietnam. Vietnam has inherited legal traditions from
Confucianism, the French, Soviet theory, and the Anglo-American system in more
recent times (Salomon & Vu, 2010). Weaknesses in Vietnam’s legal institutions
have resulted in uneven implementation capacity. However, Sidel (2008, p. 198)
claims this is partly attributed to the Party’s ‘fundamental ambivalence about legal
authority and legitimacy’ and the ‘weak, obedient role of the courts’ (Sidel, 2008,
p. 202). Though legal institutions have been strengthened (primarily in order to
qualify for membership of the World Trade Organisation and to engage in the
international economy), they do not always benefit or protect the most vulnerable
in society (Sidel, 2008, p. 200). That police exist in a political system often
regarded as ‘authoritarian’, does not necessarily mean the state is always
repressive (Kerkvliet, 2001, 2014b). Beresford (1988) referred to the Vietnamese
state as being highly decentralised, describing a gap between centrally-made
policy and what people do on the ground. It has also been a cause of complaint
that local cadres can operate with a level of independence that means a minister
may not be powerful enough to ‘reprimand’ them (Salomon & Vu, 2010, p. 230).
Despite the difficulty in implementation, Lucius (2009) claims political decision-
making in Vietnam is conducted along predetermined scripts which embed
certain ‘protected values’. These values, taught in schools, are summarised as
maintaining social order and harmony, political stability of the Party, fulfilling
duties and obligations to the country, and working together to defend the nation
from continuous threats (Lucius, 2009).

The ward (urban) or commune (rural) (phường/xã) presents the lowest

administrative level where people in positions of authority ‘mediate’ or ‘negotiate’
the implementation of centrally-made policies (Koh, 2004b).10 Koh suggests that
officials at ward level believe the community expect them to be sympathetic and
not rigidly adhere to formal policies where local circumstances should be taken
into consideration, for example, demanding a fine be paid for a transgression if it
would serve only to make the ‘poor poorer’ (Koh, 2004b). Following the law strictly

10
More detail on the structure of government administration is included in Chapter 5.
30
could also result in a loss of ‘authority’ among the community, particularly where
a high degree of familiarity existed between officials and residents (Koh, 2004b).

Street-level policing offers an understanding of how local dynamics create an

informal social order in Vietnam. In Hanoi, the government prohibits street sellers
in a bid to tidy up the narrow pavements. Small enterprises can operate with a
permit, but this disadvantages those at the lower socio-economic end who are
unable to pay for a fixed space for a stall. Street vendors engaged in this aspect
of the informal economy11 are often poor and migrate from rural areas to sell their
goods from public pavements, and are thus at the mercy of authorities. Though
the police could confiscate street vendors’ produce and equipment or give out
fines, there was also room for discretion or turning a blind eye (Koh, 2006; Turner
& Schoenberger, 2012). Street vendors reported being able to evade police by
crossing from one ward boundary to another where, in theory, police were not
able to pursue. Evasion was also possible by tactically operating during the period
when police were on their lunch breaks (Turner & Schoenberger, 2012).
However, relations between illegal street vendors and police and officials are
complicated because authorities are not only to be feared, but are actively
targeted clientele:

Paradoxically then, some branches of the policing

apparatus economically support street vendors operating in
banned locales, purchasing food and goods while in
uniform, and government officials in general are sought-
after customers. Indeed, Ha located her tea stall near
government offices because ‘‘government officials are
reliable customers with money in their pockets’’. (Turner &
Schoenberger, 2012, p. 1035)

This highlights the space in which rules and regulations are flexible or amenable
to negotiation. According to Turner and Schoenberger (2012), street vendors can

11
There are different definitions of what constitutes an ‘informal economy’. It can be used to
refer to unregulated or unregistered business, labour and transactions, and often people in
precarious employment (International Labour Organization, 2011). For this thesis, ‘informal
economy’ refers to practices which have financial benefits in the context that transactions also
bring other forms of ‘capital’ (Bourdieu, 1986, 1990b; Swartz, 1997) that are not only economic.
This is discussed more in Chapter 7.
31
even use their social capital and family connections to senior police to refuse to
obey police instructions or to criticise officers knowing they could invoke their
connections to thwart penalty. One street vendor reported openly chastising
police while taunting them; she was untouchable due to her status as a war
veteran (Turner & Schoenberger, 2012).

Although opposition to official policy is prohibited, it does not mean opposition or

criticism is prohibited entirely, but rather that it should be done in culturally and
politically acceptable ways. Sometimes the public can affect official policy and
enact change through passive resistance rather than outright protest. For
example, from the 1950s to the 1970s farmers did not obey rules about
collectivisation which resulted in the collapse of the system (Kerkvliet, 2005).
Lucius (2009, p. 172) explains this as an example where adherence to the social
norm of harmony was maintained whilst agitating for social change, albeit
passively:

They still operated within the bounds of Party rules in that

they did not publicly criticize or embarrass Party officials,
they did not question the legitimacy of the Party, nor did
they threaten the stability of the Party or the State. Instead
they slowly and persistently changed their own behavior
and showed how individual family farming could work in the
interests of the State, thus allowing the central government
to get onboard with local changes without losing face.

More recently, V. H. Nguyen (2013) documents the interesting case of police

officer Hung from Hanoi. Hung became involved with a neighbourhood group
opposing an infrastructure project after discovering his house would be
demolished. Prior to his involvement, the group had difficulty getting traction with
local authorities regarding their disapproval and opposition to the project. The
nature of Hung’s leadership and involvement in the campaign is detailed as
follows:

As a police officer, Hung was very sensitive to political

issues; he quickly caught on to this new direction and
adopted the state rhetoric of anti-corruption as the main aim
32
 of the struggle. This not only helped re-frame the motives
of the Green Alley residents in opposing the Project, it also
helped them identify the proper targets of their action and
the resources they could bring to bear. From now on,
protesters started to see themselves no longer in a purely
local context as self-interested individuals but instead as
acting within a national framework; that is, driven by their
citizenship. They felt empowered to act in the name of
justice. Anti-corruption became their new motto and gave
their struggle new meaning and legitimacy endorsed by the
central state. Their struggle now aimed not only to protect
their rights and their property but also to protect the
transparency of the government and “national justice.” (V.
H. Nguyen, 2013, p. 116)

Although the campaign resulted in a ‘partial victory’ (some residents still had their
houses demolished), the scenario demonstrates there is room to push back
against central policy. The fact that Hung was a police officer shows that people
occupying positions within the organs of government and the Party can voice
opposition and, indeed, may be at an advantage in doing so. As V. T. Nguyen
(2013, p. 122) notes: ‘the very embeddedness of the state in society means that
its representatives live and work in close proximity to ordinary citizens and often
share their interests and perspectives’. That is, people, including state
employees, negotiate state power at local and centralised levels.

Emerging security challenges

The police are important in Vietnam because they support the stability of the
political regime. Vietnam has undergone rapid social and economic change which
requires police to respond to public safety and security issues in novel ways.
Though economic development through global trade and foreign investment has
reduced poverty in Vietnam, it has also created an environment for new types of
transgressions, including transnational, economic, environmental, human and
drug trafficking, and high-tech crimes (Luong, 2017). When considered along with
local law-enforcement matters, such as domestic violence, traffic congestion and
33
drug use, these issues raise concerns among the community about the police’s
ability to respond accordingly.

Vietnam has a young population which is growing in parallel with a changing

economic model which emphasises consumption (Cox, 2010). Youth crime,
though low by international standards, has been identified as a concern and is
the subject of debate in relation to the effectiveness of the use of a penal
approach compared with more informal responses (Cox, 2010, 2012; T. Q. Le,
2017). The internet and violent video games have been attributed to an increase
in violent crimes among juveniles (T. Q. Le, 2017). Subsequently, restrictions on
internet access is seen as one mode of preventing negative influences among
youths. Restricting access to online information and prosecuting individuals for
sharing anti-government information are also methods the Government uses to
control dissent.

Efforts to change police culture have been made in Vietnam due to its poor public
image. Not only are the police ranked as the most corrupt section of society
(Transparency International, 2013), but a recent report by Human Rights Watch
warns that deaths in custody and physical abuse by police are not uncommon
(2014a). Attempts have been made to improve the public image of the police by
warning that corrupt officers face dismissal (Viet Nam News, 2011), introducing
women to frontline traffic duties (Thanh Nien News, 2013a), and removing
overweight officers from duties in the public eye (Thanh Nien News, 2013b). In
July 2014, the Ministry of Public Security issued Circular 28 which was aimed at
improving the conduct of police undertaking criminal investigations (Bộ Công an,
2014). Despite welcoming the attempt to reform police practices, a Human Rights
Watch (2014b) report criticised the regulations for placing too much emphasis on
the ward/commune police (hereinafter ward police), describing them as the ‘least
professional of the country’s police’. The report also stated:

The commune [ward] police have the least resources and

training in handling suspects and interrogations and have
frequently been implicated in beating suspects in custody.
Assigning them investigation tasks with vague instructions

34
 merely facilitates the possibility they may use abusive
methods to obtain confessions and evidence.

Despite increasing economic prosperity, Vietnam’s human rights record remains

heavily criticised by observers including Human Rights Watch (2014a) and
Amnesty International (2015). In January 2015, Vietnam joined the United
Nations Human Rights Council for a two-year term. Key areas where Vietnam is
urged to make improvements include: freedom of expression, association,
assembly and movement, eradication of the death penalty, treatment of
prisoners, arbitrary detention and the use of torture and violence by authorities.
Perhaps an indication that the Government is taking human rights issues more
seriously is the amended Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2013)
which has shifted provisions concerning human rights from Chapter 5 to Chapter
2. Although some human rights observers see the revised Constitution as an
improvement, it has been criticised for being rhetorical and having limited impact
in practice (Human Rights Watch, 2014b) as many provisions granting specific
rights are subject to legislative constraints.

Economic development has also brought about social changes in public

expectations of public officials in terms of greater demands for better service and
accountability (CECODES, 2018). Although corruption existed in Vietnam under
the centralised-planning model, Gainsborough, Dang and Tran (2009, p. 397)
assert ‘with a fair degree of confidence that since đổi mới both the incidence of
corruption and the sums involved have increased, and almost certainly have
increased significantly’. They also describe an environment where ‘systemic’
corruption is:

seen less as an aberration of the system but more as the

normal workings of the system, which has its own distinctive
logic, which is self-perpetuating. The strong connections in
people’s minds between public office, making money, and
other forms of personal advancement, lies at the heart of
this (Gainsborough et al., 2009, p. 410).

Though the systemic nature of corruption crosses all levels and sectors in
Vietnam to varying degrees, the Government (National Anti-Corruption Strategy
35
towards 2020, 2009) has recognised that failing to at least restrict its expansion
may likely invite questions of legitimacy for the VCP and threaten the Party’s
survival. Gainsborough et al. (2009, p. 485) argue that the difficulty in attempting
to reduce corruption is that it functions as a system with its own ‘institutional logic
or incentive structure which is self-perpetuating’. Consequently, interventions to
reduce corruption must target different aspects of the system which over time will
alter the incentives for engaging in corrupt behaviour (Gainsborough et al., 2009).
Recent data suggests there some progress has been made over the past decade
in stemming corruption in the public sector (CECODES, 2018).

Conclusion

This chapter has drawn upon a range of sources to provide a historical

background to contemporary Vietnam. In the first instance, the chapter examines
the persistent battles against foreign interlocutors and civil wars which have
shaped the multiple identities of Vietnamese people. Though the literature points
to much diversity, there remain key features of Vietnamese society which
coalesce around its post-Confucian influence, such as the patriarchal and familial
social structures. Vietnam’s experience with foreign invasion, its closure to much
foreign contact in the 1970s after the American War, and the nature of its political
system, have rendered policing an opaque profession. Scholarship on the
security sector in China is more developed, possibly due to the earlier opening
up to foreign economic interests; Vietnam’s đổi mới occurred a decade
afterwards. This history and cultural context affect the way political and social
institutions, including policing, have been shaped. The following chapter will
outline the conceptual framework used to explore policing and police culture in
Vietnam.

36
Chapter 3: A framework for a Southern Policing perspective

Introduction

Policing and crime control activities in the global South have received less
scholarly attention than their Northern/Western counterparts despite affecting a
larger and more diverse population. The aim here is not to provide an abstract
general theory but rather an account of policing that considers the dynamics
which shape policing in all its variations and nuances. Such a theoretical
framework will contribute to policing scholarship and our ability to better
understand the challenges of the present and future.

Policing is understood in this chapter, following Reiner (2010), to include the

activities of staff and organisations whose primary role is social control and order
maintenance. This definition accommodates the differences between Anglo-
American and Vietnamese or North-South policing and provides a framework for
the discussion.

A Southern perspective on policing aims to explore variations in the structural

relations which give rise to police organisations and cultures outside the global
North or Western contexts on which much of the foundational policing literature
was based. The purpose is not to dismiss the conceptual orthodoxy of policing
research, but to illustrate that some assumptions about policing do not
necessarily hold for a globally inclusive, comprehensive account of policing. This
chapter will show that Anglo-American/Northern assumptions about and claims
to universality of some core characteristics of police culture, and the nature of
police work must be qualified by evidence of variation and fluidity revealed in
Southern studies. I argue there is room for expanding our understanding of
policing using a reflexive approach to examine broader structural variants which
occur outside the global North. As a way of illustrating how a Southern policing
perspective might usefully contribute to better informed understandings of
policing and police culture, Vietnam will be used as a case study in an attempt to
advance policing scholarship with respect to the global South.

37
Southern Theory and policing

The specific characteristics of policing and police culture that arise in particular
places are shaped by social, cultural and political factors as well as physical
features (mountainous, island, landlocked) and climate. These features are
important not only because local people adapt, modify and respond to them, but
they shape available natural resources and opportunities for development,
economic returns and possibilities for territorial co-operation or conflict. 19th
century imperialism saw the systemic colonisation and repression of local and
indigenous populations, particularly in the global South. This institutional
exploitation was interlinked with trade, which relied on access to land, labour and
resources to flourish. A strong policing regime was also requisite in order to
effectively harness local resources (D. Anderson & Killingray, 1991).
Globalisation has its own policing requirements. Although imperialist ventures of
nation states have receded, powerful corporations continue these processes,
investing foreign money in smaller or less developed nations whose legal
frameworks or law enforcement capacities are yet to adapt to new economic
realities (Carrington, 2016). However, in addition to foreign investment,
Goldsmith (2017) notes the occurrence of ‘duping the donors’ and new ways the
formerly colonised are finding to exploit their former masters.

As discussed in the previous chapter, Vietnam is part of the Southeast Asian

region which is home to a diverse range ethnicities and cultures. Current policing
arrangements in Vietnam emerged during a period of political instability in its wars
against French and American occupations and for national independence, which
resulted in the establishment of a one-party state. The ruling Communist Party
closed the country to foreign interference while the defeated United States set
embargoes on trading with Vietnam. Compelled by its consequent state of
extreme poverty, in the 1980s Vietnam changed its economic policies and
opened itself up to foreign trade and investment to improve its economic status
and living standards. Increased prosperity was accompanied by new types of
crime requiring new responses by the police. The nature of policing which
emerged throughout these periods is directly linked to supporting the Communist
Party victory and the stability and legitimacy of the one-party state through rapid
economic and social change.
38
To what extent are the theoretical tools developed from exploring policing in
liberal democracies useful for understanding police in countries with very different
histories, political ideologies, economic status and national cultures?
Assumptions about police officers, such as having a sense of mission, being
hedonistic action-seekers or being isolated from society (Reiner, 2010) may not
have universal relevance. The experience of policing may be very different where
stable democratic government and individualistic cultural norms are absent or
changing. Furthermore, the nature and structure of police organisations and their
relation to other political, legal and social institutions can take different forms from
those in the societies where foundational scholarship on policing was undertaken.

American policing scholar, Peter Manning (2005), has argued for an expansion
of empirical research outside of the dominant UK and US (and to a lesser extent
Canada and Australia). In ‘The Study of Policing’, Manning (2005) laments the
limited availability of policing research with perspectives from Islamic countries,
totalitarian regimes, Continental Europe, transnational policing efforts (including
from the United Nations) and private policing enterprises. He contends that this,
combined with the historical barriers to knowledge production outside the
dominant Anglo-American experience, has led to a dearth of research around
policing in the global South (Manning, 2005). However, it may be argued that
more research is being undertaken outside the global North to advance
knowledge of policing, such as a recent contribution regarding Lusophone
contexts which have a shared legacy of Portuguese colonialism (O'Reilly, 2017).

Manning’s concerns are supported in Southern Theory (Connell, 2007) which

highlights this asymmetry and the privilege attributed to social theory developed
in the global North which, Connell notes, is at the expense of valid Southern
intellectual thought. The power dynamics elucidated by Connell are also reflected
in criminological research where, it is argued, a Southern perspective challenges
the assumptions of ‘metropolitan’ criminology (Carrington, 2016). These
assumptions, founded in stable democratic governance, may have little relevance
for other contexts or places regarded as the ‘periphery’ (Carrington, 2016;
Connell, 2007). Connell (2015) challenges scholars to consider the relative
absence of Southern theory through the context within which knowledge is

39
created and circulated. For Hountondji (1997, 2002), factors such as access to
acquiring research skills, networks, and resources situate academic careers
forged in the metropole as a form of ‘extraversion’. Consequently, Connell (2015,
p. 51) argues the ‘theoretical hegemony of the North is simply the normal
functioning of this economy of knowledge’.

Scholarly knowledge on policing is shaped by the environment and context in

which it was produced (Bradley, Nixon, & Marks, 2006; Manning, 2005). The
relationship between police, place and the production of knowledge can be
conceived in different ways. Firstly, there is the obvious need to recognise that
policing practices can vary substantially across diverse geographies, regions,
countries and cultures (and sub-regions and sub-cultures which exist within
these). Secondly, knowledge about policing has been produced and
disseminated unevenly so that our understanding of policing comes from a
skewed emphasis on the Western experience. Finally, approaches to the ‘reform’
of policing can take on different forms leading to a variety of consequences,
depending on the social, political and cultural history of the place. I argue that
these elements have not been sufficiently accounted for in policing scholarship
and suggest a more suitable framework to address the weaknesses in current
theorising of policing.

The present study adopts a Southern Policing perspective to frame the

research. 12 This framework draws on the concepts of the ‘field’ and ‘habitus’,
adapted by Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003) from Bourdieu’s (1990a) theory of
practice which examines how relations between the environment and individual
experiences function as a dynamic to produce (or reproduce) social structures.
This framework is further discussed towards the end of this chapter. The following
sections will look at more specific areas and examples where Northern/Anglo-
American assumptions about conventional policing may be challenged by a study
of policing in the South. These sections indicate policing fields which have the

12
A brief account of Southern Policing was first published in Jardine, M. (2018b). Researching
gender and law enforcement as public health input. Journal of Community Safety & Well-Being,
August 3(1).
40
capacity to act dialectically with the physical and social environment and thus are
amenable to change and variation.

Police and the political system

In 1973, Van Maanen quoted Trotsky’s assertion that ‘there is but one
international and that is the police’, when referring to a stereotype of police that
‘seems to run deeply through all societies regardless of social, economic or
political orientations’ (1973, p. 2). However, at the time Van Maanen invoked
Trotsky’s claim there were even fewer studies of policing under different political
paradigms than there are today. The wave of imperialism and subsequent
colonial policing that took place was largely before the ethnographic lens had
turned to police culture. Furthermore, post-colonial societies with more recent
disruptions to the political order, or transitioning democracies and economies,
remain little studied in the search for universalities among police and are,
therefore, worthy of more scholarly attention.

Formative policing research undertaken in the US and UK assumed the

underlying political system to be liberal-democratic, with commitments to the
separation of powers, the rule of law, and individualised justice. Policing in a
democracy is notionally committed to upholding specific values including
‘freedom of speech, association, and movement, and freedom from arbitrary
arrest, detention, and exile’ (Bayley, 2006, p. 19). Sklansky (2008) argues that,
in societies which value democracy, the goal of the police is to uphold the political
values which underpin it. In Anglo-American policing, political independence is
the ideal, even if it has often not been achieved in practice. The independent role
of constable was a vital political device here, even when the structural position of
the police in the state is recognised. In his study of police in the US, Van Maanen
(1973, pp. 1-2) referred to the relationship between police and the political system
in the following way:

Fundamentally, a police officer represents the most visible

aspect of the body politic and is that aspect most likely to
intervene directly in the daily lives of the citizenry. If one
considers the President the “head” of the political system,
41
 then the patrolman on the street must be considered the
“tail”

The conventional account regarding the development of modern policing is that

it began in early 19th-century England with a model which had a preventative
focus due to concern about the French model, a top-down mode of enforcement
which concentrated power in the executive (Van Dijk et al., 2015). The French
centralised approach included the policing of political opponents which Brodeur
(1983) designated as ‘high’ policing, as a way to distinguish it from the public
order aspects or ‘low’ policing. Although the advent of modern policing is
associated with Sir Robert Peel’s13 English ‘New Police’ in 1829, his role as Chief
Secretary in Ireland saw him establish, many years earlier, in 1814, the first
organised police force: the Peace Preservation Force, which would come under
the Irish Constabulary after 1822 (Brogden, 1987; Jeffries, 1952; Sinclair, 2008).
The Irish police was a colonial model used both to control the Irish citizenry and
as a training ground for officers who would later be sent to police the empire
(Sinclair, 2008). That former colonial police officers returned to Britain after
service and took up domestic positions also resulted in a ‘cross-fertilization’ of
imperial and colonial models (Sinclair & Williams, 2007, p. 222).

The role of the police and the source of their mandate in Anglo-American
jurisdictions have been the focus of most policing studies (Manning, 1978).
Manning (1978, p. 487) has described how Anglo-American police initially saw
their functions as pertaining to ‘crime prevention and deterrence’, but over time
this transitioned, or was cultivated, to emphasise a ‘crime-fighting’ orientation.
The police identify as crime-fighters, necessarily giving the impression (at least)
that police authority is based in law where infractions designated as ‘crimes’ are
found.

In the US, the idea of ‘professionalism’ was adopted to emphasise scientific

methods for crime investigation (Carte & Carte, 1975; Vollmer, 1971).
Professionalism was also put forward as an anti-corruption tool which sought to

13
Reference to ‘Peelian principles’ has been critiqued as a ‘textbook’ construction of a collection
of principles not entirely, but to a large extent, attributable to Sir Robert Peel (Lentz & Chaires,
2007).
42
create distance between police and local politics to promote law enforcement
against vices, including gambling and prostitution, objectively and independently
(Carte & Carte, 1975; Vollmer, 1971). However, in the 1980s Bayley (1988) noted
this approach (which by this stage was considered ‘traditional’ policing) had failed
and new arguments for a community-oriented policing which emphasised
localised engagement and problem-solving had emerged.

There are different interpretations of what ‘professional’ means with respect to

policing. Professionalism can be championed with a view to ‘limit or manage
officers’ decisions and actions’ through increased accountability (Hills, 2014, p.
769). It may also be conceptualised as either ‘old’ or ‘new’. Elements of ‘old
professionalism’ centre on the task of being ‘professional crime fighters’
(Manning, 1977, cited in Fyfe, 2013, p. 410), propped up by centralised
management systems relying on ‘random, motorised patrols, rapid response to
calls for assistance, and the retrospective investigation of crime rather than
upstream preventative approaches’ (Fyfe, 2013, p. 410). ‘New professionalism’
drew attention to accountability, legitimacy and innovation, including evidence-
based practice (Stone & Travis, 2011).

In terms of ‘new’ professionalism, Fyfe (2013, p. 411), drawing on Stone and

Travis (2011), describes legitimacy as being ‘conferred by the law and democratic
politics’ (as well as the result of principled interactions with the public). This is
obviously problematic for non-democratic states. Whilst there are fewer one-party
states than there were in the last century, most are located in the global South
and have been under-researched in terms of empirical studies providing an
opportunity to re-think the relationship between politics and policing.

In contrast to Bayley’s (2006) ideals of democratic policing as upholding freedom

of speech and association in some political systems, police themselves may not
have this opportunity, let alone be mandated to support the citizenry in this
manner. For example, police in China ‘are first and foremost political agents of
the ruling class’ – the Chinese Communist Party (Wong, 2012, p. 13). Moreover,
not only police, but all Chinese citizens are expected to support and endorse the
ruling party, including, for example, in prohibiting freedom of association. To what
extent does this difference in official political doctrine affect policing at the
43
frontline, given claims that police work as an occupation has common features?
Though adherence to a political party may not preclude police from carrying out
law enforcement functions, it may influence some aspects of their work or
occupational identity. Hills (2014, p. 769) asserts that definitions of
professionalism are dependent on context, such as the case in Zimbabwe police
professionalism has been referred to as the ‘effective delivery of specific political
aims and objectives’. Whereas the politicisation of police activities can occur
anywhere and change over time, the formal relationship between police and
political institutions has assumed a model of independence as a necessary
condition for a professional police force. However, this has been contested by
scholars of Chinese policing who argue a professional police force can be
compatible with authoritarian governance (F. Liu & Martin, 2016, p. 371; Wong,
2012, p. 369). Furthermore, Brogden (1987, p. 8) provides one (of several)
alternate view of policing whereby ‘professional policing’ – understood as
protection of the state – could be the norm and community policing a ‘peculiar
deviation’. These assertions raise questions about the origins of definitions of
‘professional police’ and their applicability to different (including non-Western)
contexts.

The nature of a political system can also determine the mechanisms through
which police can be held to account and how reforms may be instigated. In some
jurisdictions, the pressures or possibilities for change in police practices or culture
may include demands for more gender and ethnic diversity following sex
discrimination cases or ‘race riots’, intense media scrutiny of police investigations,
royal commissions and judicial review (or their equivalent), examination of stop
and search practices, and unionised strikes among the police workforce. In some
countries, these avenues may be unavailable, inaccessible or even prohibited by
law and so the effects that these have had (or not) on police organisations in
stable Western democracies may not be found under other political
circumstances.

Police and discourses about the law

Anglo-American policing’s relationship with the law is a crucial part of its historical
identity. The legal nature of police authority and the police role have led to
44
extensive discussions of the limits and uses of police discretion within the law.
When police authority purports to be derived from the law, the circumstances in
which police use discretion to enforce the law or not is necessarily an important
focus of research. Thus, assumptions which drove early policing empirical
research in democracies was based on the rule of law focused on exploring
‘behind the mock-bureaucratic façade’ and ‘the law in action by contrast with the
law in the books’ (Reiner, 2016, p. 237). The use of discretion has been
documented in many foundational studies in the context of patrol work (Banton,
1964; Cain, 1973; Skolnick, 1994; Van Maanen, 1973; Westley, 1970) and
detective work (Ericson, 1981; Hobbs, 1988; Young, 1991). These have
differences in levels of visibility of decision-making and possibilities for
supervision or review (Brogden, Jefferson, & Walklate, 1988). Discretion can also
be used at higher levels of the police organisation through decisions by
management (Brogden et al., 1988; Reuss-Ianni & Ianni, 1983).

The ethos under Sir Robert Peel’s English model emphasised the role of police
as not unduly interfering in the lives of the public. The priority of policing was to
maintain social order. Police saw their work as discerning between the ‘rough’
and ‘respectable’ (Shearing, 1981) and manifested in an ‘us versus them’
mentality (Waddington, 1999). Despite the development of a crime-fighting ethos,
ethnographic studies on patrol-work found authors described crime work as
forming only a small part of the nature of police work which was described as
having a service-oriented or peace-keeping role (Banton, 1964; Ericson, 1982;
Reiss, 1971; Westley, 1970). Anglo-American police justified their interventions
as the exercise or expression of legal authority.

The circumstances described as giving rise to police intervention and

opportunities for discretion in Western democracies may not be neatly applicable
to contexts where legal rational discourse was not historically presented as an
ideal. For example, studies on policing in countries with a Confucian influence
emphasise that police (or those undertaking policing functions) traditionally
derived their authority not from law, but from state power and processes of moral
ordering (Jiao, 2001; J. T. Martin, 2014). Jiao (2001) explains that the criminal
justice system in China emphasises early intervention, rehabilitation and re-

45
education. A correct moral order is hierarchical, with an inherent natural order
within the family, neighbourhood and state. By acting virtuously towards others,
with correct ‘manners, etiquette, propriety or rites’, moral and social stability are
maintained (M. R. Dutton, 1992, p. 22). The policing of virtue did not necessitate
strict rules and regulations because morality was an intrinsic behaviour to be
cultivated did not require legal form or public proclamation (M. R. Dutton, 1992).

This has implications for the relationship between police and the law. Jiao (2001,
p. 160) claimed that ‘the rejection of codified and publicly promulgated laws for
centuries in China served a practical purpose for the police – to enable them and
the community to create new and mutually acceptable solutions to conflicts
without their hands being tied’. An approach founded on policing a moral order
also has implications for the legal culture which develops and the extent of
investment in police knowledge of the law. However, the Chinese authorities have
pursued an agenda to professionalise the police driven by the need to control
market-oriented institutions amid rapidly growing prosperity (F. Liu & Martin,
2016). Efforts towards professionalising Chinese police have focused on their
being ‘more scientific, rational, rule bound, and humane’ (Wong, 2012, p. 231),
although the shape that this takes depends on the emphasis on which ‘rules’ are
prioritised, for example, Party doctrine, laws or local interpretations.

Factors affecting police culture and practice

Northern policing scholarship in the 1960s and 1970s gave the impression of a
monolithic organisation with a workforce who shared similar worldviews and
characteristics (Reiner, 2015). In his classic study of police, Van Maanen (1973,
pp. 3-4) claimed: ‘In short, when a policeman dons his uniform, he enters a
distinct subculture governed by norms and values designed to manage the strains
created by his unique role in the community’. The police ‘role in the community’
was that of the ‘patrolman’. The insights garnered by Van Maanen (1973) and
other researchers such as Skolnick (1994, 2008; Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993) formed
the basis for much of the policing scholarship that followed, examining the
relationship between frontline police and citizens (Manning, 2014). Reiner (2010,
p. 3) refers to the ‘taken-for-granted’ perception of who the police are, as
‘primarily … a body of people patrolling public places in blue uniforms, with a
46
broad mandate of crime control, order maintenance and some negotiable social
service functions’.

The emphasis on police patrol work and interaction with the public resulted in
identification of core characteristics of police culture (Reiner, 2010). Police were
described as setting about their work with a ‘sense of mission’ to catch ‘villains’,
as seeing themselves as the ‘thin blue line’ between order and chaos (Reiner,
2010, pp. 119-121). Catching criminals required physical strength, machismo and
a penchant for excitement and action (Fielding, 1994). Racism has been regarded
as an enduring feature of police culture (Skolnick, 2008; Westley, 1970), although
this is partly a reflection of the multicultural societies where dominant scholarship
was based (Reiner, 2010). Research has associated some police cultural
characteristics with a masculine orientation, including ‘aggressive, physical
action, competitiveness, preoccupation with the imagery of conflict, exaggerated
heterosexual orientation and the operation of patriarchal misogynistic attitudes’
(Fielding, 1994, p. 47), and alcohol consumption (Reiner, 2010). Police are
described as typically cynical and pessimistic as means of expressing frustration
and disappointment with their mission, though often manifesting in humour
(Reiner, 2010).

The core characteristics included a sense of social isolation between police and
the community which Reiner (2010, p. 122) suggests stems from: ‘shift work,
erratic hours, difficulty switching off from the tension engendered by the job,
aspects of the discipline code, and the hostility or fear that citizens may exhibit to
the police’. It also reflects the bureaucratic and ‘professional’ portrayal of police
work which emphasised a distance between police and the community so as to
be impartial in executing law enforcement functions (W. R. Miller, 1999; Reiner,
2010). The distance between police and community formed part of the pursuit of
‘professionalisation’ which dominated American approaches to improving policing
from the mid-20th century (Sklansky, 2011), and which Manning (1977, p. 120)
described as ‘a strategy employed by the police to defend their mandate and
thereby to build self-esteem, organizational autonomy, and occupational
solidarity or cohesiveness’. Early US studies focused on the work of the
‘patrolman’ as typical of policing generally, with Van Maanen (1973, p. 38)

47
pointing out that ‘patrolmen rarely see the same people twice’, and Ericson (1982,
p. 6) observing that ‘the vast majority of their time is spent alone in their patrol
cars without any direct contact with citizens’.

Anglo-American literature characterised police culture as monolithic, with shared

cultural agreement across a range of organisations, departments and ranks, but
police culture really only referred to ‘street-cop’ culture. In 1983, Punch (p. xi)
remarked that the ‘politics of access conspired to deflect academic attention
downward, particularly to patrol activities and away from senior officers and high-
level decision making’. In his edited book, Control in the Police Organization
(Punch, 1983), further research began to reveal differences among police
depending on their rank and function, acknowledging that the ‘patrolman’ does
not represent the only occupational outlook of a police officer. Reuss-Ianni and
Ianni (1983) studied two precincts in New York City and determined that, as a
result of increasing demands for efficiency and accountability, ‘two cultures of
policing’ had arisen – ‘street cops’ and ‘management cops’. Whilst both cultures
share the mission to ‘combat crime and insure a safe and secure city’ (Reuss-
Ianni & Ianni, 1983, p. 258), they differ in their approach and focus. The ‘street
cop’ is concerned with proximate experiences that require a ‘gut-level’ response
to situations learned on-the-job. The ‘management cop’ oversees and is
responsible for the allocation of resources across a wider terrain and is thus
concerned with the efficiency of the system and managing ‘impersonal variables’
(e.g., individual officers and the police unit). Reuss-Ianni and Ianni (1983, p. 259)
describe the two cultures as reflecting a classic manager–worker relationship with
an inherent conflict because their differences in ethos, between flexibility and pre-
packaged practice, result in a ‘game’ requiring an ability to ‘maneuver [sic]
around, outwit, or nullify the moves of headquarters decision-makers’.

Further understanding of policing and police culture as distinct from the

‘patrolman’ or ‘street cop’ came with the investigation of detectives and their work.
In the locales of initial studies, the pathway to becoming a detective was through
doing time in uniformed general duties. This progression meant detectives could
reflect on the differences between uniform and detective work through their own
experiences, as was the case with Young in the UK (1991) who noted a difference

48
between uniform work, which emphasised the importance of an arrest, compared
with the detective who had to pay more attention to statistics. Other differences
include the ‘low visibility’ of detectives who are seen to have more control over
their work (Ericson, 1981). Although a largely reactive role with cases typically
brought to their attention by uniformed officers, detectives maintain control over
information and a range of possible responses to reports, including determining
if a report constitutes a crime at all and thus part of their workload, and
possibilities for performance evaluation (Ericson, 1981). Hobbs (1988) also
studied detectives and described their work as ‘entrepreneurial’, distinct from the
more ‘militarist’ uniform police work. Hobbs’ (1988) contribution was to highlight
how the symbiotic relationship between the economy of London’s East End
shaped the nature of detective policing in the area. It showed that, despite
bureaucratic and militaristic approaches, the police are not necessarily involved
in a top-down controlled approach but that the specific conditions of ‘the policed’
interact with the police to create a particular style (Hobbs, 1988).

Early accounts of police culture were also captured through a narrow lens,
examining their formal position which, according to Manning (2014, p. 519),
reflected a ‘visible, preventive, reactive and responsive, uniformed, and politically
neutral’ public police. This view of the police, and their role, is one that had
obligations towards public safety and order distinct from the obligations of
members of the public. Policing was an activity in the public domain, a
demarcation limiting the role of the state in private affairs (Locke, 1982/1689). As
noted above, Manning (2014, p. 530) points to the need for the exploration of
policing models other than Peelian in order to understand ‘the role, if any, of the
political economic, and cultural context of the police organization’s operations’.
Though the British police were exemplified as impersonal authority under Peel’s
model, Miller (1999) described social isolation as a consequence. The founding
of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 under the Chinese Communist Party
saw the formation of the renmin jingcha People’s Police) which
provides a contrasting example. In theory, police were to have ‘no separate
identity and interests’ to the people and were to assist the people by responding
to crimes as personal problems, rather than as legal violations (Wong, 2010, p.
89). The relationship between the police and the people was expressed using
49
iconography of ‘fish (police) in the water (people)’ (Damin, 2001, cited in Wong,
2010, p. 88). Policing constituted a rather informal activity emphasising education
and rehabilitation, and interactions with the people. This included broad social
functions and administrative tasks of the state, such as population management
and collecting taxes (M. R. Dutton, 1992). The low mobility of the Chinese
population (prior to economic reform in the 1980s) contributed to a localised,
familiar neighbourhood or clan approach to mutual surveillance. Thus, the lines
between police and community were more blurred and overlapping than those
described in early Western policing literature. The mass-line policing approach
under Mao Zedong aimed to mobilise the people into an active role in policing
where collective responsibility for reducing crime was emphasised (Wong, 2010).
Therefore, assumptions from Northern literature about the relationship between
police and community and the extent of social isolation among police may not
necessarily be valid for police in the global South.

Given the police are drawn from the citizenry, they are necessarily embedded in
the social relations of the broader culture. Some scholars have drawn broad
comparisons between Western and Asian societies and implications for crime
and social control (Jiao, 2001; J. Liu, 2017). Asian societies in general are
regarded as having closer familial relationships and more social relations than
their Western counterparts (J. Liu, 2017; Nisbett, 2001), often framed as a
difference between collectivist and individualist cultures. J. Liu (2017) asserts that
‘relationism’ and collectivity characterise East Asian societies, giving rise to
particular ‘cultural values, and thought patterns’. He cites four key features which
inflect criminal justice responses with certain features: attachment to families and
communities, preserving honour (including behaving correctly to preserve the
honour of others), harmony over conflict avoidance, and holistic over analytical
thinking (J. Liu, 2017).

Although not all Asian societies are the same, some (including China and
Vietnam) are marked by a focus on the collective, especially family (and extended
family) relations and close community networks. Expectations of police may be
that they participate in social functions of local residents which can blur the lines
between public and private concerns. Where gift giving is a social custom in these

50
environments, police can be the recipient of offerings which may not be easily
refused. Cao, Huang, and Sun (2014, p. 154) describe the dilemma in the context
of Taiwanese community police:

For officers in Taiwan, many of the gifts are seen as a

mixture of voluntary and obligatory conduct, and the
importance attached to the creation of a harmonious
relationship in a post-Confucian society makes the rejection
of such gifts more difficult.

Cao et al. (2014) note that police in Taiwan have a different experience to those
in the West where the public and private spheres are more clearly delineated. In
the case of the latter, maintaining a distance between the police and the policed
was a means to avoid close relationships which may risk officers being corrupted
(Herbert, 2006). Whereas in Taiwanese society, ‘the ubiquity of informal
relationship networks means that large sectors of the social order penetrate the
boundaries of the police in Taiwan’ (Cao et al., 2014, p. 151). Though the
combination of informal networks, social obligations and gift giving can facilitate
corruption, it also means the cultural characteristic associated with social
isolation of police in Western countries may be experienced differently where the
lines between public and private are more blurred.

Police recruitment, training and education

The nature of police recruitment, training and education in a particular place is a

product of the historical emergence of the police, the political system and broader
societal cultural attitudes to education and civil service.

Police recruitment in 19th-century England sought or attracted young, single men,

as well as younger boys who could begin as cadets (Emsley, 2014). Constables
were typically from low to middle socio-economic backgrounds; ‘“respectable”
upper working-class men with minimal educational qualifications’ (Punch, 2007,
p. 106). Dominant reasons for joining varies across countries and cultures; for
example, some research has found people become police because they have a
desire to serve the community, perceive police work to be a noble profession and
see it as stable and secure employment (Chan et al., 2003; Fielding, 1988).
51
Pressure or encouragement by family and interest in job security are major
justifications for joining the police in Taiwan (Cao et al., 2014). By contrast, one
reason for becoming a police officer in South Africa was as a last resort in
precarious economic circumstances (Faull, 2017). In his ethnographic study of
the South African Police Service, Faull (2017, p. 333) found police described their
employment as ‘both lucky and deserved, and accidental and unplanned’.

In the mid-19th century, police training in England constituted two weeks of ‘drill
and sword exercises’ and some lectures with an emphasis on learning law by rote
(Emsley, 2014, p. 206). At the turn of the 21st century, a report critical of police
training in the UK described it as rigid, militaristic and focused on knowledge
acquisition (especially legal) (Charman, 2017; HMIC, 2002). The HMIC (2002)
report criticised the length of formal police training, comprising 31 weeks (out of
a 104-week total probationary training period), and recommended that it should
be increased given the complexity of police work and the need for it to be
regarded as a proper profession. Though police should know relevant law, the
report found the composition of police training focused too heavily on knowledge
of the law and recommended greater emphasis on communication, use of
information technology, problem solving, team working, techniques of reducing
crime and evidence-based practice (HMIC, 2002, pp. 44-45). In 2018, the College
of Policing (UK) began recruiting under a new Police Education Qualifications
Framework which provides pathways to tertiary-level qualifications (College of
Policing, 2018).

Punch (2007) notes differences between ‘Anglo-Saxon’ countries and continental

Europe’s approach to police education with the former focused on recruiting
people with secondary-school or college education and the latter likely to provide
high-quality training internally. The continental approach to police training more
closely reflects a military model. There are Southern examples where police
training is centralised with a bifurcation between academy/university and
college/vocational institutions catering for officers to work at the lower ranks or
management and upper ranks; Taiwan being one such example (Cao, Huang, &
Sun, 2015). There are also assumptions in relation to a mutual suspicion between
police and the education sector (2017), though this does not necessarily have

52
universal application as it is predicated on the assumption that police training and
university education are separate enterprises. Indeed, in Taiwan, China, South
Korea and Japan, a university policing degree is a standard requirement (Cao et
al., 2015).

Society’s expectations of police

The perception of police culture as unitary was borne from research that ignored
the diversity of police work. Notwithstanding, Crank argued police had a shared
‘common culture’ because frontline officers ‘everywhere’ responded to ‘similar
audiences everywhere’ (1998, p. 26); however, the audiences he refers to appear
to be confined to the United States populace and institutions. There is an
increasing body of knowledge outside the global North showing that street-
policing culture is not universal because the dynamic between the police and the
policed is subject to cultural variations.

With respect to police cultures in Asia, some scholars have drawn attention to the
way broader cultural characteristics shape understandings and expectations of
policing (Haanstad, 2013; Jiao, 2001; J. T. Martin, 2016; Wong, 2012). In a study
on drug control in China, the researchers found citizens ‘tend not to hold police
accountable for neighbourhood conditions in the same way as Americans do’ (Dai
& Gao, 2014, p. 217). In the East Asian context, Wong (2010) refers to the way
broader culture provides different perspectives on community policing
approaches. He refers to Goldstein’s problem-oriented policing (POP) (H.
Goldstein, 1990) as a ‘police’ theory which seeks to address a ‘community
problem’ where an individual or community seek police support to solve a
problem (Wong, 2010, p. 96). In contrast, Wong (2010, p. 85) proposes that a
community policing approach in China is better understood through ‘police power
as social resource theory’. Here, people see police as one of many social
resources they can draw on to solve a problem but with a view that police advise,
facilitate or empower people to solve their own problems without formal legal
intervention; this amounts to a ‘people’ theory where police are not central for
resolution (Wong, 2010). Theorising about police culture, therefore, relies on an
understanding of community expectations of police because they only function in
relation to each other (J. T. Martin, 2018). This includes understanding the
53
historical underpinnings that have formed a ‘friend–enemy’ (Schmitt, 2007)
conceptualisation of police–community relations (J. T. Martin, 2018).

Outside the Asian and Anglo-American context, scholars have considered the
relationship between the police and community with respect to historical and
cultural influences (Marks, 2005; Strobl, 2011, 2016). Marks (2005, p. 149)
referred to the dynamic between police and some communities in South Africa
where antagonism could develop over time. She describes how the accumulation
of ‘localised historical memories … which created a vicious circle of response and
counter-response’ acts to sustain particular types of relationships between the
police and the policed (Marks, 2005, p. 149). Marks also noted that, even after
six years of reforms in the Durban Public Order Police, the level of violence and
brutality to which the officers were exposed would continue to shape their
memories of and behaviours towards specific communities.

Wong (2010, pp. 98-99) says community expectations of police, and

subsequently the nature of police responses, must consider:

How the people of a given society in a certain era and at a

certain place conceive of the police and their relationship
with society must of necessity depends [sic] on the cultural
understanding of that society about the role, functions and
relationship of the police with the public.

Furthermore, Wong (2010) takes issue with Bittner’s (1970, p. 41) proposition
that when people call the police there is an expectation they have the capacity to
employ the use of force (not that they will), arguing that, in the Chinese context,
the Western conception of the expectation of force as being central to the police
role is not neatly transferrable. J. T. Martin (2016, p. 463) argues that the
‘reduction of police power to physical force’ misses other understandings of the
capacities of the police. For example, in Taiwan, a dimension of police work is to
be called upon to ‘help out’ which, as Martin (2016, p. 469) describes, ‘is intimate,
the mode of policing implicated in the sphere of social obligations’. But in Taiwan,
the police are not necessarily the only people citizens call upon to solve problems
that are in the police remit, and patronage networks can be brought to bear on
situations that disrupt (or shape) police authority. If we conceptualise police
54
culture as something that is the product of a relational dynamic between the
environment and individual, as per Chan’s (1997; Chan et al., 2003) framework,
then an environment where police and citizens navigate social obligations,
reciprocity and patronage networks may mediate an officer’s disposition towards
the use of force differently.

Conceptualising police culture and its production

To date, studies on police socialisation and occupational culture have been

concentrated in the West, for example, in the United States (Van Maanen, 1973),
the United Kingdom (Cassan, 2010; Fielding, 1988; Loftus, 2009), Australia
(Chan et al., 2003) and France (Cassan, 2010). Chan et al. (2003, p. 3) describe
socialisation as ‘the process through which a novice learns the skills, knowledge,
and values necessary to become a competent member of an organisation or
occupation’. Whereas Van Maanen (1973) conceptualises a passive role of police
in the socialisation process, Chan et al. (2003) highlight the agency of individual
officers as they adapt to new positions. The role of police culture in socialisation
has, in the past, been viewed with negativity and often blamed for the
transmission of bad practices from one generation of police to another. Most
views of police culture in the Western literature have negative connotations
(Paoline, 2003), amongst which include: being a major barrier to reform (Dean,
1995; Goldsmith, 1990; Greene, 2000), tolerating tacit support for misconduct
and misuse of authority (M. K. Brown, 1988; Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993), and the ‘code
of silence’ among officers which often prevents investigations into police
impropriety (New York Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police
Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, 1994;
Walker, 2001). Consequently, police culture has been seen as an impediment to
professionalisation. In contrast, some researchers have identified positive
features of police culture, such as the collegial support available for coping with
the stresses of police work (Chan, 1997), and as an effective mechanism to
achieve police reform (Crank, 1997; Skogan & Hartnett, 1997). Attempts to
change police culture in this context can, therefore, be seen to contain both
opportunities and challenges.

55
A study by Chan (1997) in Australia critiqued previous research, arguing there
was an under-recognition of the interactive nature of factors that result in the
production of police culture. She contended that police culture should not be
viewed as static because changes in the political environment or challenges of
new social issues could influence police, and because individual officers had
agency in choosing how to respond or interact with their environment, more so
than was previously recognised by academics. Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003)
drew on organisational theorists to position police as ‘actors’ within organisations
who are ‘active decision-makers who are nevertheless guided by the
assumptions they learn and the possibilities they are aware of’ (Chan, 1997, p.
74). Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003) introduced Bourdieu’s (1990a) concepts of
field and habitus to conceptualise police culture as a relational dynamic between
the environment and an individual’s dispositions. Here, individuals take up
objective positions in the social world which subsequently shapes their subjective
dispositions towards their social world acting as a dialectic. Therefore, the field of
policing is a social world which can shape the individual dispositions (habitus) of
officers. The habitus is where an individual processes information about the
environment and organises it into ‘schemas’. These schemas shape the
parameters for an individual’s perceptions and determine whether information
received in the future will be accepted or rejected. Though responses are not
predetermined, they are fashioned to an extent by an individual’s knowledge of
possibilities, described by Powell and DiMaggio as ‘menus of legitimate accounts’
(Powell and DiMaggio 1991, cited in Chan, 1997, p. 75) or a ‘vocabulary of
precedents’ (Ericson, Baranek, & Chan, 1897). Actors may also respond
subconsciously and then be inclined to consider ‘how an action can be
retrospectively justified rationally, that is, what types of justification are
organisationally permitted’ (Chan, 1997, p. 75). The interactive model proposed
by Chan challenges the assumption that individual officers are ‘passive entities’
participating in an organisation’s culture rather than having a capacity to be active
change agents.

There is some commentary on how, once socialised into the police culture, police
take on an identity which influences their attitudes and behaviours outside work.
While Van Maanen (1973) asserted that police don the uniform and enter a
56
distinct subculture, Waddington (1999, p. 291) suggests that some police culture
research may have engaged in ‘interpretive over-reach’ by assuming too much
distance between the culture associated with police and that pertaining to the
society more generally. The fact that racism is present within police culture is
described as a likely reflection of prejudice in the community and especially the
communities from which police officers were typically drawn in the US and UK –
lower and middle working class. Similarly, a high tolerance for violence amongst
police in South Africa was seen by Faull (2018) as a reflection of societal attitudes
given the political upheavals and instability. Furthermore, Dixon (1997, p. 161)
critiqued the tendency of some researchers to ‘over-socialize’ conceptions of
police officers by attributing to them characteristics that are indistinct from (the
ordinary) activities of other work cultures. Waddington (1999) posits that the
problem of detecting or measuring a cultural attribute of an occupation can be
determined only with an appropriate benchmark, otherwise how can it be
determined that a characteristic arises from the occupation or wider society?

In China, the public security sector perspective of police culture appears to

diverge from Western conceptualisations. Whilst acknowledging a poor police
culture is detrimental, it is viewed as a product that can be harnessed and
nurtured to make a positive contribution to the quality and productivity of police
work (Wong, 2012, p. 112). This is in line with the view that a good social culture
more broadly can be developed in Chinese society. Consequently, police culture
is something that should be examined, invested in, cultivated and maintained to
improve the moral and material performance of the police.

There are examples of how police culture has been defined and addressed in
China: the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Jinzhou, Hebei Province, regards
police culture as pertaining to:

(1) a professional culture (zhongcheng fengxian guogan

zhuhui, weimin zhifa, gng wei ren xian), which is devoted to
service, is resolute and wise, enforces the law for the
people, and is not afraid to lead; (2) an artistic culture; (3)
and a social culture. (Wong, 2012, p. 112)

57
Other examples of deliberate cultivation of police culture focus on art,
photography, singing and organising festivals (Fuzhou PSB, Fujian Province) or
sport and physical activities (Shanghai PSB, Baoshan subdivision) (Wong, 2012,
pp. 112-113). In addition, there was the establishment of a Police Culture Salon
(jingcha wenhua shalong) where police could meet from 7.30 p.m. to 1 a.m. three
times per week and discuss various topics, not necessarily related to policing, but
to provide space for police to ‘relax and reflect’ and learn new things (Wong,
2012, p. 113). In China, police culture has been viewed not simply as the product
of a disposition attributed to the nature of police work but as encompassing a
wider identity that is not wholly distinct from broader social culture. From the
examples presented above, we can begin to elucidate differences in how different
cultural settings can lead to different assumptions about what police culture is,
and that theoretical constructs developed in the West may not be applicable
elsewhere.

Although there is increasing diversity in policing research, the foundational

studies provide what Loftus (2009) refers to as ‘the orthodox account’ from which
other police scholarship is anchored (Manning, 2014). Sklansky (2007) argues
that the study of police culture may also suffer from ‘cognitive burn-in’ where the
frames used to examine the subject are re-used, thereby limiting opportunities for
new insights and developments. Chen’s (2016) study in China is a useful starting
point from which to examine universalities among police, but it could also be an
example of how cultural characteristics associated with police are entrenched
rather than interrogated, as Sklansky (2007) suggests. Chen (2016) set out to
measure the adherence of subcultural perceptions of frontline police in China with
those identified among police in Western studies, specifically: role orientation
towards crime control and service; levels of cynicism, traditionalism, solidarity and
isolation; and receptivity to change. He surveyed 401 officers from 29 provinces
and reported similarities between Chinese police and core characteristics in
Western literature with respect to adherence to ‘solidarity’ and ‘isolation’ but noted
a receptivity to change and a service orientation which may indicate an element
of difference. The study is useful because it indicates how broader cultural
differences may shape police culture, although future studies might benefit from
identifying new variables or characteristics of police in China which could be
58
tested in the West so that possibilities for universalities are not explored in one
direction.

Gender

Policing is a male-dominated occupation. Early literature focused on policemen

and patrol work, emphasising an action-oriented, macho, crime-fighting ethos
(Fielding, 1994; Reiner, 2010) despite studies showing ‘action’ comprised only a
small part of police work. Women’s inclusion in police work has historically shown
their involvement at least initially on the periphery, doing ‘care’ or ‘service’
oriented work (Silvestri, 2003). Studies on the integration of women into policing
have been dominated by the global North (Heidensohn, 1992; S. E. Martin &
Jurik, 2006) based on a critique of a patriarchal system in a liberal democracy.
They have identified barriers to women’s participation in what are seen as ‘core’
policing roles, for example, frontline crime response and investigation. In order to
be deemed capable alongside men in policing, many women try to project
themselves in a way that does not tie them to their sex category so they can
succeed in a male-dominated occupation (Morash & Haarr, 2012). In addition,
Rabe-Hemp (2009) found that, in order to fit into the male dominated police
culture, policewomen in the US take on masculine characteristics to broaden
career opportunities yet, at the same time, often behave in ways that reinforce
traditional concepts of gender difference. In Australia, Chan, Doran and Marel
(2010) found that many female police expressed during their training a desire for
equal treatment to their male counterparts although, after field experience, many
policewomen became resigned to ‘doing gender’. This is manifest in undertaking
gendered roles often categorised as ‘soft’ policing and perceived as peripheral to
core police functions which require physical strength and the capacity to use
coercive force (Chan et al., 2003). However, McCarthy (2013), invoking Chan’s
(1997) more fluid construction of police culture, suggests that recent trends
towards multi-agency approaches may be used to position ‘soft’ policing functions
with more legitimacy in the male-dominated organisation.

Scholars have argued that theoretical frameworks and understandings of women

in policing, established through empirical studies of Western policewomen, do not
necessarily suit other contexts (Naratajan, 2008; Strobl, 2008). Strobl critiques
59
Brown’s (1997) model which suggests integration of women police arises from a
small number of ‘pioneers’ prepared to publicly resist and litigate for change and
observes that countries where this occurs have more ‘cultural space’ for women
to do so. Strobl’s (2008) ethnographic study of policewomen in Bahrain
highlighted that efforts towards women’s liberation take different forms depending
on broader political and cultural characteristics. The cultural parameters for
women to express tendencies towards specific gender roles are affected by
religious identity and social stigma associated with reflections on their family and
marriage prospects (Strobl, 2008). Like Al-Mughni, Strobl points out that women’s
liberation does not neatly follow a linear progression and points to the way
Islamicisation in Bahrain and other Gulf states has seen a ‘reversal of the
relaxation of traditional gender role expectations … in the 1960s and 1970s’ (Al-
Mughni, 2001; Strobl, 2008, p. 54). However, Strobl says women still participate
in ‘politicking’, though it is more likely to be ‘behind-the-scenes’ which preserves
the ideal of male leadership (Strobl, 2008, p. 55).

The progression of women’s inclusion in Western police forces has been towards
full integration where men and women undertake the same training and
operational duties despite the fact they may end up doing (and wanting) different
roles (Chan et al., 2010). and can vary depending on the national context (Van
der Lippe, Graumans, & Sevenhuijsen, 2004). However, this approach is not
reflected globally and Strobl (2008) argues the imposition of this model is itself a
colonial act and fails to take into account local needs and cultures.
Notwithstanding, segregated models instituted locally, such as the Delegacias de
Policia dos Direitos da Mulher (Women’s Police Stations) in Brazil, do not escape
criticism for their ability for meeting expectations of their employees and the
segment of the community they set out to serve (Hautzinger, 2002). Strobl
argues for more empirical research to be undertaken to provide evidence for the
circumstances under which variations and alternatives should be implemented,
and that hybrid or ‘two-track’ systems for women’s integration into policing are
suitable for some contexts (2008, pp. 55-56). Chu and Abdulla (2014) echoed
Strobl’s assertion following their study of self-efficacy beliefs and gender roles
among policewomen in Dubai, noting that Western gender integration models
may not be suitable for non-Western settings.
60
The nature of women’s participation in policing is also shaped by the incentives
which propel their inclusion. For example, some jurisdictions may seek to employ
women to address specific problems of gendered violence where women officers
are regarded as providing more empathetic responses to victims, and that victims
are more likely to feel comfortable to report crimes (Hautzinger, 2002). However,
some drivers for women’s inclusion arise out of a broader push for gender
equality and equal opportunity, sometimes driven by top-down government
employment policies. For example, in Taiwan, Gingerich and Chu (2013) report
that, in line with changing consciousness regarding gender equality, the police
are recruiting more women and integrating them into a wider range of roles,
although overall the proportion of women was just 7.72 per cent. Although Asian
countries share strongly patriarchal social structures, policy directions for women
in policing are varied. A theoretical framework for policing must also consider the
broader culture, especially those with different religious or ideological
backgrounds.

A Southern Policing perspective

To develop a framework for a Southern Policing perspective, I propose an

extension of the interactive model of police culture and practice developed in
Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003) which draws on Bourdieu’s (1990a)
conceptualisations of field and habitus as a relational dynamic. The framework is
useful because it provides flexibility for explaining police practices in both
Northern and Southern contexts. It can also account for differences in cultural
knowledge and institutionalised practices. Chan (1997) suggested the field has
been underestimated in terms of its influence on police occupational culture.
Fields are made up of agents which may be institutions, individuals or other
agents participating in the ‘struggle to maintain and enhance their positions in the
social order’ by pursuing forms of capital (Swartz, 1997, p. 137), including political,
social, symbolic, economic and cultural capital. Chan’s (1997) research was
important in providing a theoretical framework which could account for a variety
of subcultures: police officers can occupy different positions in a particular field
which can change depending on role, function, place and other external political
and social factors. Police officers have the potential to change police culture
61
(within certain parameters) because they can pursue forms of capital such as
knowledge through education or by fitting in with the culture via expressing a
codified demeanour or attitude.

Within this context it becomes clear that in a Southern Policing perspective, the
field pays attention to the historical relations of a particular place, its political
system, broad societal culture, legal frameworks, organisations, relations
between police and the community, and gender as a social institution. Each of
these constitute a subfield of power, and their positions are not fixed and have
varying degrees of autonomy which can change over time. Changes in one field
may not have a determinate impact on another field, and indeed, may have
unintended outcomes. A Southern Policing perspective recognises that capital
comes in forms which may depart from those identified in Northern-dominated
research. If we understand police culture to be fluid because officers have agency
to pursue different forms of capital, it is important to recognise that societies may
weigh various forms of capital differently leading to different manifestations of
police culture.

It is possible that increasing globalisation, migration and technological advances

may result in convergence of some police strategies and practices, though this is
neither necessarily determinate nor appropriate. In addition, changes in the
nature of crime may lead to different presentational strategies by police which in
turn affect the nature of policing and police identity (Manning (1978, p. 499). The
contribution of this research is to highlight that the field of policing can be very
different from that described in the foundational policing research by Northern
scholars. It is not to say traditional research on policing does not offer useful
explanations to understand police better, but, rather, that there are more
perspectives from which we can learn. A Southern Policing perspective aims to
elucidate aspects of the field in order to challenge underlying assumptions about
the structural conditions in which the police operate.

62
Conclusion

This chapter has shown the limits of northern and specifically Anglo-American-
focused studies of policing which assume that what they describe are necessary
elements of policing everywhere. Though some aspects of Anglo-American
principles and practices have been exported to countries outside the global North,
they overlay and interact with established cultures and norms of a specific place
– cultures and norms are also amenable to change over time. Some examples of
transfer of policing strategies are the result of colonial and globalising practices.
In addition, indigenous forms of social control occur in societies with non-Western
roots. These have to be understood not as deviations from Anglo-American
normality but as significant separate practices and traditions of policing from
which the North may have something to learn.

63
Chapter 4: Police ethnography in the global South:
methodology and ethics

Introduction

Until recently, most ethnographic studies on policing available in the literature

were undertaken in the global North – developed countries with relative political
and economic stability. Decisions made by researchers in these fields could be
informed to an extent by the work of previous scholars. Increasingly, scholarship
about policing is being produced outside the global North, giving rise to a range
of fieldwork issues (Belur, 2014; Blaustein, 2015; Faull, 2018; Goldsmith, 2003;
Haanstad, 2008; Jauregui, 2013; Marks, 2005, 2012; J. T. Martin, 2006; Xu,
2016). Sometimes, scholars study police within their own country and culture. In
other cases, there are those who, like me, travel to a foreign country to study
policing in a different culture, in a different language and in an environment which
presents very different dilemmas and opportunities. In this chapter I outline
methodological strategies employed and discuss in detail my motivations for
studying the police in Vietnam. I draw upon a range of research regarding policing
and culture to examine some considerations when undertaking fieldwork.
Discussion of ethical challenges, constraints and limitations on the scope of the
research among other considerations are also presented, as is access to the
research participant cohort.

Situating the researcher in ethnographic police studies in a one-

party state

Prior to commencing my doctoral candidature, I was cognisant of limitations to

what could be explored in a study on policing in Vietnam. The personal, political
and professional14 complexities of this task were realised during fieldwork and,
perhaps more so, while writing the dissertation. Typically, a ‘methods’ chapter is
descriptive, with attention directed towards weighing the advantages and
disadvantages of the selected methods and their limitations in theory and
practice. There is also an inclination – especially for a doctoral researcher – to

14
Christine Bonnin (2013) also refers to ‘professional, personal and political’ although their
rearrangement here indicates the order of primacy I perceive for my study.
64
characterise fieldwork as being not only well planned, but smoothly executed in
order to demonstrate a level of competence worthy of academic status. To do so
in this case would exclude many of the crucial insights elicited through confronting
and navigating (not always successfully) challenges relating to the intertwining
exercises of process and method, research and writing, as described by
Sowerwine (2004). ‘Methods’ chapters often separate the research process from
its content. However, it became increasingly clear to me that the process (broadly
including positionality and reflexivity at the time of, or even prior to,
conceptualising the research idea) determines the content of the thesis.
Sowerwine has argued that explicating the research process is essential due to
the ‘politics of data inclusion or exclusion’ (2004, p. 229), but in my experience
the politics of inclusion or exclusion begins before data collection starts,
especially where policing in a one-party state is the subject of study. For example,
when I was considering undertaking the type of research I wanted to do on
policing in Vietnam, I knew that I would have to seek official approval. A wholly
informal approach would not have been possible in this case for several reasons
which I outline below. The fact that I had to obtain official approval from the MPS
meant the scope for my study would be limited.

In the following sections I address some of the considerations, processes and

interactions that shaped my engagement with the subject area and with data
collection. I then present discussion in further detail of my ethnographic approach
in the Methods section below.

I conducted an ethnography of policing and police culture in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Ethnography involves an acute awareness of one’s positionality, reflexivity,
awareness of the power relations present in every interaction, the role of
gatekeepers and ethical dilemmas (Turner, 2014). I found anthropological
literature useful to draw upon for this study. In Turner’s edited book, Red stamps
and gold stars: fieldwork dilemmas in upland socialist Asia, she states,
‘“professional detachment” is neither an option nor a goal for any of this volume’s
contributors, and we explore the quandaries raised when trying to balance
empathy with observation, and scholarship with advocacy’ (Turner, 2014, pp. 2-
3). The book provides accounts of ethnographic fieldwork with ethnic minorities

65
in socialist states in China, Laos and Vietnam. The accounts of researchers
(anthropologists, geographers and ethnohistorians) describe challenges in
relation to how positionality is negotiated in the field with poor, often marginalised
communities with huge differences and disparity in wealth, education levels,
access to information, and even their ability to leave the field after the research
was completed. Although participants in this study were not ethnic minorities,
holding positions of relative power within the Ministry of Public Security, there
were many similarities in the challenges faced in conducting fieldwork under
socialist rule.

A police officer in this study explained to me: ‘In Vietnam, you can’t get anything
done without relationships’. Relationships were key in the process to gain
approval for this study which I believe was facilitated by my ability to speak
Vietnamese and previous work history in Vietnam. 15 Language helped me to
bridge a gap with Vietnamese police officers who supported my application with
the Deputy Minister of Public Security, enabling me to be the first foreigner to be
granted this type of access. That I had been a police officer (Victoria Police) and
that the Australian Federal Police work closely with, and provide significant
funding for, police capacity building in Vietnam were mentioned as supporting
factors by Vietnamese officers. A researcher’s appearance or ethnicity can affect
the way they are perceived or accepted in the field. Sowerwine (2014, p. 102)
examined how her nationality (as an American) may have shaped her research
with ethnic minorities in Vietnam given the post-war, post-colonial environment.
She considered that her nationality may have attributed to her some ‘baggage’
with regard to the American War (Sowerwine, 2014, p. 100). Indeed, it was
suggested by a Vietnamese academic that had I been American it might have
been more difficult to be given access for the study.

My previous work with the Vietnamese police provided a form of continuity to my

identity which facilitated the research. My first letter of request for approval to the
People’s Police Academy (PPA) was sent back to me to be re-drafted; I was

15
I commenced Vietnamese language study at Monash University in 1997. I also studied for
one year at the Victorian School of Languages and received a scholarship to study at
Intermediate level at the Vietnamese Language School for Foreigners in Hồ Chí Minh City in
2005. Between 2006 and 2013 I had intermittent tutoring in Melbourne, Hồ Chí Minh City and
Hanoi.
66
advised to include a list of activities I had been involved in to support Vietnamese
police to date. I was able to detail activities spanning several years such as
organising international study tours and helping police with successful
scholarship applications to study in Australia. That my access was leveraged by
my status as a former Australian police officer and current policing consultant
could ascribe me the ‘position’ of an ‘outside insider’, someone who is a serving
or retired officer with inside knowledge of the police officers’ world observing their
colleagues (J. Brown, 1996; Westmarland, 2016). 16 I return to the issue of
researcher position in Chapter 9.

Other scholars have noted a difficulty in navigating access to interviewees where

previous research on police reform may have been perceived negatively (see
Goldsmith, 2003 for his experience in Colombia). Former Indian police officer
Belur (2014, p. 189) attributes her ‘perceived pro-establishment persona’ to her
success in gaining access to study police in India. She noted, however, that this
created an ethical dilemma in that, although she was ‘sympathetic to the
establishment in principle, the analysis would be objective and data driven’ (Belur,
2014, p. 189). Belur (2014, p. 190) also indicates her discernible empathy
towards the challenges of police work which had enabled access to zones off
limits to other, ‘activist’ researchers perceived as intent on exposing police as
‘brutal and oppressive’.

The global South presents a range of considerations in relation to gaining access

and ethical review requirements. Marks describes how a ‘relationship of mutual
trust and respect’ had been established with the Durban Public Order Police prior
to her being invited to undertake an evaluation of the unit (2005, p. 84). She
attributes the ease of her access in part to the broader political changes in South
Africa which were opening up government institutions to more scrutiny. In Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Blaustein (2015) examined community policing facilitated by
his involvement in a project with the United Nations Development Program.
Scoggins (Scoggins & O'Brien, 2016) used her former position, teaching English

16
My ‘position’ as a researcher might be considered more accurately as ‘outside outsider’. I’m
inclined to regard myself as both ‘outside insider’ and ‘outside outsider’ as previous policing
experience provides occupational knowledge although it has obvious limitations in a foreign
organisation and country.
67
to police in China, to interview a cohort of officers on the sensitive topic of job
satisfaction (there appeared to be very little) although she does not indicate
whether she had official endorsement. The necessity of obtaining formal approval
at all was challenged by Goldsmith who states: ‘While the advantages of
obtaining it are fairly obvious, it comes at a price and its absence should not be
allowed to dictate the viability of field research’ (Goldsmith, 2003, p. 110).
Studying police without formal approval depends on the context and the nature
of the data sought by researchers. Furthermore, a PhD project is subject to the
demands of the university research ethics committee which, in this case, required
a Letter of Support from the Vietnamese police, in-country ethics approval and
the appointment of an in-country supervisor. Consequently, the ‘price’ (as per
Goldsmith) paid for these prerequisites includes satisfying (or negotiating)
conditions set by the institutions involved. Alternative approaches at various
stages of seeking approval through ‘gatekeepers’ could have been to negotiate
different terms with the university ethics committee and the police about the
conditions of the research. It is not known to what extent some conditions could
have been adjusted at the outset and with what consequences. By not agreeing
to conditions set by the police, it may be the research would have taken a different
course where formal access may have been rejected altogether, rather than
restricted. The specific conditions relating to this project and their implications are
detailed below in the sections on methods and limitations respectively.

Where research on policing involves observing officers in the field, it necessarily

means potential risks associated with police work – for example, exposure to
physical violence or trauma. The security environment can vary markedly, such
as those experienced by Goldsmith (2003) in Colombia, Marks (Marks, 2005,
2012) in South Africa, and Belur (2014) in India. Given my knowledge and
experience in Vietnam, I did not expect to confront serious threats to my physical
safety while undertaking fieldwork. A safety protocol I prepared for approval by
the ethics committee, which provided an opportunity to pre-empt how to mitigate
harm in such circumstances, was largely redundant because I was restricted from
observing police on ‘patrol’. However, it may in some cases be the police or
officials who present the greatest risk to a researcher (Goldsmith, 2003; Polsky,

68
1967). This could be a concern if one was attempting to investigate or oppose
the political regime in Vietnam, but this was not the focus of my study.

In 2016, a large-scale environmental disaster sparked major protests in Vietnam

after toxic waste was illegally dumped into the East Sea from a Taiwanese steel
factory, Formosa. Protests are rare in Vietnam and are usually shut down quickly
and with force, if necessary. Over several weekends, major protests were held in
Hanoi, Hồ Chí Minh City and central Vietnam where the Formosa disaster
occurred. By coincidence, I observed protesters in Hanoi being shuttled onto a
bus by police to be removed from the city centre. I saw footage online where
plain-clothes ‘police’ were, in some cases, violently arresting protesters and
pushing them or dragging them onto buses. The Government blocked internet
access to social media sites for several consecutive weekends, reportedly to stop
people from being able to organise protests online. Although using a Virtual
Private Network (VPN) connection to get around firewalls is possible in Vietnam,
I was able to use my Australian SIM card in my mobile phone to access banned
sites on affected weekends, albeit only intermittently due to the expense. I had
made public social media posts that I was in Hanoi doing my PhD fieldwork on
the police. During this period, I was contacted on social media by people who
appeared to be Vietnamese and I could tell from viewing their online profiles that
they clearly had a pro-democracy agenda. I am not sure why they contacted me
and can only surmise that they were seeking information or a perspective on the
police actions from a foreign observer. I remained focused on my study aims and
did not want to compromise my research through any perceived association with
anti-government protestors (if, of course, their social media profile was indeed
genuine). The vigilance taken here was one example of where I actively
considered my positionality as a researcher whereas there were other scenarios
which were unplanned or accidental (as detailed below).

The final product of a research project is the result of innumerable factors. A

researcher’s positionality influences the nature of ‘access, relationships, the
“data” collected, and the knowledge encoded’ (Sowerwine, 2014). In my case,
gender is an obvious factor that shaped my interactions. In addition, I experienced
health issues which meant I did not participate in as many social and group

69
activities with police as I would have liked (typically late-night drinking) despite
receiving direct invitations. Behar’s (1996, p. 20) assertion that ‘an
anthropologist’s conversations and interactions in the field can never again be
exactly reproduced’ weighs heavily on me given the lost opportunities to learn
more for inclusion in this study. Even so, the circumstances would allow for many
fruitful conversations.

Some scholars suggest that, when building rapport with new acquaintances, a
good rule of thumb is to avoid ‘religion, sex and politics’ (Goldsmith, 2003, p. 122).
I found these topics difficult to evade. In Vietnam it is considered normal, indeed
good manners, to enquire about a person’s age, marital status and whether one
has children yet (literally ‘yet?’ (chưa?) because parenthood is an expectation).
Age is important because it denotes how people should address each other in
Vietnamese language (as described in Chapter 2), and to enquire about a
person’s family is a mark of politeness. It was not uncommon for police students
and officers to ask me these questions at the start or end of an interview. In 2016
I was 37 years old and, according to Vietnamese culture, it is unusual for women
of my age not to have children. After initiating the subject, some students
responded to my predicament with laughter or sympathy – sometimes both.
Fortunately, over the years I have assembled a series of amusing retorts for just
such scenarios with a view to take advantage of the situation and build rapport
rather than dampen it. Perhaps it was my single relationship status that prompted
one police officer to give me advice (over dinner with his wife) based on Buddhist
teachings about how to control my sexual urges – despite my having mentioned
nothing in relation to the subject. Equally, politics was a frequent topic of
conversation. I have often wondered whether it is Vietnam’s past and its school
curriculum that promote an outward-looking perspective on international
relations, or that simply my ‘foreign-ness’, and the opportunity for cross-cultural
exchange, is what stimulated the many discussions on global issues I had with
Vietnamese people. Whatever the case, these conversations required that I
share facts about my personal life as well as my values and opinions about the
world. For better or worse, these interactions shaped this research project and
accords with Behar’s (1996, p. 17) view that, ‘as a mode of knowing that depends
on the particular relationship formed by a particular anthropologist with a
70
particular set of people in a particular time and place, anthropology has always
been vexed about the question of vulnerability’. This view resonated with me,
given some of the situations I found myself in during my research.

On a visit to Hanoi in 2017, I was at a social event where I met a highly ranked
officer who had a major role in the Police Academy branch of the Women’s Union.
We conversed for some time in Vietnamese (as she did not speak English) and
on saying goodbye she invited me to her house. She told me to bring my personal
belongings, so I could stay the night. I accepted the invitation but thought I must
have misheard because we had only just met and I resolved that it was simply a
dinner invitation. Several days later I arrived at her home and met her husband
and son. She asked where my overnight bag was and when I said I did not bring
it she was disappointed and showed me to the spare room where she had made
a bed for me to spend the night. I apologised and, after explaining that I had
misunderstood, we had dinner and I took a taxi home.

Although the invitation described above was a particular example of amiability, it

was not uncommon for police whom I had just met to invite me for dinner with
their families and friends. 17 Police were often interested in the strategies and
tactics of Australian police given the disparity in available technology and
resources; however, responses to reciprocal questions about tactics in Vietnam
were not always forthcoming. There was an apparent novelty to my being a white
woman (and former police officer) who could speak Vietnamese. I was accessible
to non-English speakers who previously had limited opportunities to speak
directly with a foreigner. Indeed, one student, upon hearing a call for participants
in my research (with an interpreter), said that he volunteered because he had
never had an opportunity to converse with a Westerner. I also seemed to be of
value for police who wanted their children to practise what they learned in English
class at school with a native speaker. Sometimes I found myself teaching
Vietnamese to young children who were still learning to read. These exchanges
gave me a window into the lives of police officers in a way other than ‘drinking
beer in pubs’, as has been the case in some other studies. The emphasis on

17
Notwithstanding, sometimes a dinner invitation resembled more of a gesture than an
intention.
71
family and social networks involved in the research process also goes some way
to supporting the importance of relationships in police practice as described by
officers themselves in the following chapters.

Given learning a second language is an ongoing pursuit, police officers and I

together found mutual benefit in sharing tips on our native languages, as well as
reviewing and editing documents for one another. The latter provided an insight
into what police were working on from day to day and led to discussions about
policies and priorities to which I may otherwise not have been privy. Another
opportunity for reciprocity came when, during informal encounters, curious
officers asked me questions about various aspects of my research such as
methodology, the ethical review process, informed consent forms and
confidentiality agreements. One officer stated that he was observing me in order
to learn how to apply similar procedures in his own research. This reflected an
appreciation for learning and academic standards, also borne out in the data, and
a recognition of the status of higher education in Australia (and some other
‘Western’ universities).

I consider that my policing experience and attachment to an Australian university

played a greater role than my gender in negotiating power relations, which
(despite some differences in circumstances) was also the case for Belur (2014)
in India. Notwithstanding, ‘researching while female’ can have both advantages
and disadvantages. Horn (1997) suggested being a female researcher in a male-
dominated police organisation may lead to being seen as an ‘ineffectual’ spy, not
savvy enough to gain credibility. She revisits her doctoral research where
probationers refused to complete a survey despite senior-level approval (Horn,
1997). Conversely, Horn (1997) proposes that, in cases where a woman is
perceived as ‘unthreatening’, male officers may volunteer information more
readily than they would to another man. I cannot be sure of the extent to which
such cases may be applicable to my research, although I suspect both would
apply at various stages or simultaneously.

72
Scholarship and advocacy

Gender is a major theme of the present study, and how police officers perceive
the role and status of women in policing was of specific interest. My research
proposal approved by the MPS explicitly stated the study aimed to investigate
barriers to the expansion of women in policing. Personal communication with
Police Academy staff indicated this was an area that warranted attention in a
changing Vietnamese society (notwithstanding, it was also a palatable research
topic in a politically sensitive environment), and it is commendable that the police
approved my research knowing that I was an advocate for changing the official
policy on women’s recruitment.

Social science scholars debate the role of advocacy in research; some warn
against it while others argue it may be unavoidable or even desirable (Becker,
1967). In her book, An Unquiet Mind, professor and psychiatrist Kay Redfield
Jamison writes: ‘It is an awful prospect, giving up one’s cloak of academic
objectivity. But, of course, my work has been tremendously colored by my
emotions and experiences’ (Jamison, 1996, p. 203). Jamison was referring to her
own struggles with mental illness whilst working as a professional in the field. I
felt curious but emotionally detached during interviews and discussions with
police on topics such as policing structures and training approaches. However,
when it came to issues of gender I became more engaged and found myself
challenging views more vehemently where issues of gender discrimination arose.
I often found it confronting when women stated they had little interest in having
equal opportunities to men, opportunities which I believed could empower women
and help them reach higher ranks associated with higher income, status,
decision-making powers and influence. While overall there was a range of views
concerning gender (see Chapter 8), I felt torn between my views on gender
equality and imposing these views onto women in a different cultural context.

As a former police officer – and foreigner – I was often the subject of curiosity
and seen as a source of information about policing in another country.
Interviewees asked about the type of police work I undertook and, given the
divergent roles men and women usually undertake in Vietnam, my explanation of
women’s involvement in operational policing was often met with surprise. I

73
explained that, in Victoria, Australia, all police academy graduates had to
complete two years of general duties which included going on patrol in a vehicle
or on foot, attending and doing initial investigation at crime scenes, responding
to violent incidents such as armed robberies and domestic violence, investigating
drug and alcohol issues, dealing with traffic incidents and collisions, and
responding to mental health concerns in the community. I also explained that I
worked in Criminal Investigation Units or taskforces where I assisted in
investigating more serious crimes including murder, rape, gang violence and drug
trafficking (including purchasing drugs as an undercover police officer).

In giving a description of policing in Australia, I hoped to convey the breadth of

work women officers perform in contrast to Vietnamese police. However, in doing
so, I created a contradiction: most interviewees enquired as to why I was doing
my PhD on policing instead of continuing to work as a police officer. I explained I
suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of exposure to
life-threatening incidents involving wrestling offenders with firearms and
distressing scenes of traffic fatalities, so I preferred to research policing instead.
In the first instance, I was not prepared for this question. In the interest of
authenticity, I answered honestly. This question usually came at the end of an
interview where I would invite interviewees to ask me any question they liked.
Their responses to questions on women in policing had already been discussed
and I was therefore not influencing their views. Where interviewees expressed a
view that women were not physically or psychologically suited to frontline police
work, it is possible that their hearing my experience confirmed rather than
challenged this view. Additionally, I felt compelled to be upfront because, in that
first instance, interpreters who were present knew why I had left policing, so I felt
it could have, in their eyes, affected my integrity if I appeared to be concealing a
truth (which, albeit, could have been explained later). Nonetheless, after the first
instance, I decided to respond truthfully whenever asked, especially given I was
naturally hoping they were being truthful with me. The benefits of being oneself
during fieldwork, as noted by Dixon (2011), relieves pressure associated with
being ‘on stage’ or pretending to be someone else, which may be easily unpicked,
particularly when dealing with police. I certainly found this to be the case and
would have felt deceptive if I had done otherwise.
74
75
Research methods and design

A qualitative approach was used to address the following questions:

1. What are the historical, political, economic, social and cultural influences
which shape policing and police culture in Vietnam?
2. How do structural and cultural influences affect the nature of women's
inclusion in policing in Vietnam?
3. What are the theoretical and policy implications of the findings?

I employed document analysis, interviews and observation as the means by

which I would gather data. The research design draws on the utility of the
ethnographic method commonly employed in the study of policing and police
culture. Ethnography is both a methodology and an analytical approach to the
study of culture. It uses in-depth, semi-structured and informal interviews
alongside participant observation and the compilation of detailed field notes.
Geertz (1973) noted the subjectivity of ethnography because it is only through the
process of interpretation and writing of what is observed, using ‘thick description’,
is data produced.

In his study of police socialisation, Van Maanen (1973, p. 5) argued that in order
to ‘gain insight into the police environment, researchers must penetrate the official
smokescreen and observe directly the social action in social situations which, in
the final analysis, represents the reality of police work’. According to Van Maanen
(2011, p. 1), ‘an ethnography is written representation of a culture (or selected
aspects of a culture)’. The process of interpreting, coding and decoding what has
been observed by the researcher is essential in ethnography whereby meaning
is attached to data only when it takes written form. Central to the process of
ethnography is the practice of ‘reflexivity’. As Grbich (2004, p. 28) explains, ‘self-
reflexivity involves a heightened awareness of the self in the process of
knowledge creation, a clarification of how one’s beliefs have been socially
constructed (self-revelation) and how these values are impacting on interaction
and data collection in the research setting’.

Whilst some observational approaches to research rely on pre-determined check-

boxes to record behaviour – enabling a quantitative analysis – ethnography seeks
76
to determine facts or interpretations about a particular culture which are yet to be
discovered, requiring an openness to what is being observed. To support this
approach, Chan (2012) produced a useful ‘Guide for observers’ for her research
on police culture and professionalism in Australia. The guide covers the following
areas: the purpose of the observation, what to observe, how to take field notes
and a list of useful techniques which provided important guidance for compiling a
fieldwork diary for this study.

The following sections will provide the rationale for the selected study site, a
description of the research methods used which constitute the qualitative
approach for the research, along with considerations regarding data analysis,
ethics approval and study limitations.

Selection of the study site

The selection of the study site was determined based on my previous experience
and contacts with the People’s Police Force. Although the present study refers to
policing in Vietnam, it is more correct to refer to policing in Hanoi and northern
Vietnam given that fieldwork was based only in the north. Centuries of migration
patterns reveal a relatively stable and Chinese-influenced population in the north,
compared with the south where migratory flows were more prominent and
diverse. Furthermore, the experiences of French colonialism and the American
War in the north and south may have shaped the broad regions differently. It is
important to recognise that conclusions drawn from this data set may not be
applicable to policing in southern (or central) Vietnam.

Document review

A review of documents relating to policing takes account of the regulatory

framework governing police authority and accountability structures,
organisational policies which aim to guide police work, and the content and nature
of police training as per the documents listed in (a)-(c) below. Grey literature and
open source material as set out in (d) below was used to examine the relative
status of police, policing and the policed. Whilst efforts were made to source
information in Vietnamese, valuable documents in French, Chinese, Japanese

77
and Russian were also available for review, reflecting Vietnam’s colonial and fluid
history.

a) Laws, policies, decrees, ordinances and regulations to understand the

regulatory framework for police in Vietnam.

b) Policies and regulations to better understand the structure and

organisation of public security institutions.

c) Curricula and training documents used to educate police students for their
tertiary (Academy) qualifications.

d) Grey literature and open source material regarding policing and security in
Vietnam.

Systematic review of relevant documentation is limited by the fact that many

official documents pertaining to the MPS and the PPF may be regarded as state
secrets. It is worth noting that, during the course of my research, more documents
and information about the MPS (including the police) were made publicly
available. Furthermore, translations of some regulations, policies and curriculum
were not available and limited time and financial resources were directed towards
translating key documents, constraining the breadth of the review. For example,
the three-volume (official) History of the Vietnamese People’s Police (Tởng Cục
Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c) is almost 1000 pages in length and
only some sections were translated in full.

Access to documents about police and crime statistics was limited. Requests for
information were often met with suspicion. Sometimes the response I received to
requests was ‘they would look into it’, but information was not provided. I would
sometimes interpret this as a passive way to refuse access without actually
saying so, in which case I would stop asking. Sometimes people would tell me
information was ‘secret’, yet when I asked others the information was provided;
this gave an insight into how individuals perceived risk and the status of
information.

78
Ethics approval

The President of the People’s Police Academy gave written approval for the study
following advice from the Deputy Minister for Public Security. The University of
New South Wales (UNSW) provided ethics approval. The People’s Police
Academy does not have a research ethics body and so in-country ethics approval
was obtained from the Internal Review Board of the Institute for Social
Development Studies, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation registered
under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a useful way for parties to a research

project to agree on the parameters and conduct of data collection beyond ethical
approval. An MoU was not developed for this study although it would likely have
been helpful to identify and address some critical issues, particularly around
participant confidentiality and access to field sites. In contrast, personal
communication with scholars of police in nation states, where informal or opaque
decision-making processes can override official documentation, suggested the
lack of an MoU may be advantageous as both researchers and internal
gatekeepers navigate invisible and shifting boundaries.

Approval from the Ministry of Public Security

There were some delays in receiving an official response to my request for

approval to conduct the research. I was unsure whether delays in receiving the
approval letter was a cause for concern even though I was advised the approval
was ‘in progress’. In 2015, I decided to travel to Vietnam on my own initiative to
make myself available for a personal meeting with PPA officials. Within days of
arriving, I was invited to the academy to collect the Letter of Support signed by
the Rector of the PPA in person. While there, police officers suggested I could
practise my questions and interview a group of female police students. Though I
was surprised by this offer, I returned the next day to join a circle of five female
police students at varying stages of their training. Four staff supervised the
discussion, one of whom placed her mobile phone clearly on the table and
recorded the discussion. The two-hour discussion canvassed a number of topics
including: reasons for joining the police; family history in policing, if any;

79
curriculum; and career aspirations. Despite one student being quite shy, the
others responded with a range of views with some expressing frustration at the
limited opportunities available to female students at the academy. As this meeting
took place prior to receiving ethics approval, the content of the discussion is not
included in the analysis in following chapters. I wondered if it was a test as to
whether my questions for the proposed research were acceptable and
appropriate or, rather, not unduly intrusive on sensitive issues. I sensed relief and
a more relaxed attitude among the staff who observed the exchange as they had
made it clear to me that this was the first time the academy was going to allow a
foreigner to undertake research on the organisation and alluded that their
facilitation of the research may have repercussions (presumably for their own
reputations) if the research had undue findings. Whilst the ethical requirements
as set out in the Participant Information Statement and Consent Form stated
unequivocally that participants would not be questioned about criminality, which
could compromise them or others, the self-censorship on the part of participants
was both a source of relief and frustration: relief because it unburdened me of the
task of censorship in the process of writing up, and frustration because of the
gaps it left in my data, especially where I felt my questions were non-threatening
or risky.

Observation

The study involved participant observation intermittently over a six-month period

in 2016 (and a brief visit in 2017) principally at the People’s Police Academy, as
well as interactions with serving and retired police and other stakeholders off site.
A Field Research Safety Protocol was submitted to the Human Research Ethics
Committee at UNSW. The Protocol says I would be accompanied by an officer
from the International Co-operation Department (ICD) at the PPA 'at all times’ (as
stated at the time they granted approval for my research). However, within a few
weeks, I was sometimes accompanied only by a police student and allowed to
enter the front gates of the academy unaccompanied and made my way through
the academy to the meeting room where interviews were conducted or sit in the
café on the campus by myself in between interviews. It appears that the provision
for being accompanied by an officer from the ICD may have been stated initially

80
as a precaution on the part of the Police Academy as it was the first time a
foreigner had been approved to conduct research of this kind in Vietnam. The
initial supervision became less frequent. I believed they were assessing the
nature of the interviews and, once they were satisfied with my conduct, their
oversight was no longer necessary.

The original research proposal included observation at police stations. Several

ward police (công an phường) chiefs who heard about my study through their
networks verbally agreed to let me observe their officers on duty and on patrol if
approval was given by senior levels of the MPS. One station leader said I could
observe his officers on duty but only if I was accompanied by an approved police
interpreter in uniform, which appeared to be a condition meant to convey, either
internally or externally, that the activity had official sanction. I found this
interesting because, as a blonde white woman, it is impossible to be anything
other than conspicuous among Vietnamese police. I prepared letters seeking
approval to visit the specific stations where the chiefs had agreed to participate
in the research, however, these were not passed up through the chain of
command. One liaison officer explained the reason for the blockage was that I
might ‘see too much’.18 Given throughout the research there was variation in how
rules were interpreted and applied, it is possible that, with more time – and trust
– access may have been negotiated, but it was not achievable within the
timeframe available for fieldwork, if at all.

I rented accommodation close to the centre of Hanoi. In the past I usually rented
a motor scooter for a flat monthly fee (about $40), but this time (arguably where
it could have been convenient and cost effective) I decided to take a taxi (car) to
and from the academy. Depending on traffic congestion, this could take 35
minutes to over an hour, and cost between AUD$7-20 each way. This added
significant cost to the research but allowed me to prepare for interviews on the
way and write notes on the way home. Officers were often concerned that I was
wasting money on taxis and would sometimes flag down colleagues at the end of
the day to ask if they would give me a ride home to help me save money. This

18
Cram (2018) explores the positionality of police participants and provides interesting insights
on how different police sub-cultures can render them more hostile or receptive to being involved
in policing research.
81
also provided an opportunity to converse with police otherwise not involved in the
study which helped with informal data gathering and background information
contributing to the context for policing. Although my movements may have been
monitored, there appeared to be an ad hoc approach to who would drive me
home, indicating a departure from the rigid structured supervision I was warned
about at the outset of the study.

Over the course of my research, I encountered a number of hurdles in regard to

the use of observation as a method to gather data on policing in Vietnam. Access
was limited by time constraints and a partial language barrier. I was able to
observe police students in training at the Academy and the training environment.
This included activities such as martial arts and marching on the parade ground,
some classes (for brief periods and without an interpreter), recreation and meal
times on and off campus, formal events, including a graduation ceremony and
anniversary celebrations. In addition to police-specific activities, I paid attention
to political, cultural and social dimensions which helped me understand the wider
context for policing in Vietnam. I triangulated data from observations where
possible through the use of techniques to improve validity, for example,
conducting formal interviews after observation to clarify any issues, and obtaining
written official documents or other sources to further support or corroborate
evidence.

The local practice of having a ‘nap’ or break in the middle of the day was helpful
in that I was able to use the time (between noon and 2 p.m.) to write up notes or
spend time between interviews in the academy where informal discussions could
take place. (I wrote fieldnotes both by hand in notebooks and on my laptop
computer. The detail and quality of my fieldnotes varied (depending on my
capacity due to ill health – see below) as sometimes they were made in dot point
to assist recall when I had more time to write in full. I read ‘Writing Ethnographic
Fieldnotes’ (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 2011) in preparation for fieldwork which I
found extremely useful. It helped me prepare for different ways of interpreting
what I observed and what I recorded in my writing, for example, by deliberately
turning my attention to the textures, spaces and moods of particular environments
or interactions as suggested by the authors).

82
According to Salemink (2014), the concept of the ‘field’ can be expanded to
include ‘scholarly and political terrain’ encountered by the researcher even when
not in the ‘field’, that is, not the geographic site under study but rather, for
example, at their research institution in their home country.19 Social media are
increasingly being used as a source of data to study social phenomena. Whilst
social media sources were not used in a systematic way to gather data for this
study, it was useful to observe some aspects of policing given that the state
controls much of the media, and police transgressions are rarely exposed through
formal channels without Party approval. Many people in Vietnam try to get around
internet firewalls to access censored information in the country and to avoid
surveillance. In 2018, large protests broke out after the Government announced
it intended to pass legislation which would require platforms, including Facebook
and Google, to host user data inside Vietnam.

Semi-structured interviews

According to Kvale and Brinkmann (2009, p. 1), ‘the qualitative research interview
attempts to understand the world from the subjects’ point of view, to unfold the
meaning of their experiences, to uncover their lived world prior to scientific
explanation’. One benefit of the semi-structured interview is that it enables a
dialogue between the interviewer and the interviewee which allows probing
questions to elicit rich data or even present new information to challenge a
particular point of view.

The study used purposive and snowballing techniques to identify participants. As

per Table 1 below, interviewees included police students, academy lecturers and
managers, operational police, retired officers and other professionals,
international commentators and other social networks. Formal and informal
interviews were conducted with other stakeholders although the data from those
interviews are not presented in the thesis, they helped by providing background
information and refining interview questions.

Table 1. Sample of police interviewees

19
Or other place, as ethnographies have increasingly explored cultures within domestic borders
or sites familiar to the researcher.
83
 Police interviewees Students Officers Total
Female 11 7 18
Male 10 9 19
Total 21 16 37

The target population included:

(i) Police officers (serving and retired) in the Hanoi metropolitan area – the
criteria for inclusion were:

• Officers with current or former experience in operational duties,

investigations, administration, supervision or management regarding:
Criminal Police, Criminal Investigation, Traffic Policing, Anti-Narcotics
Investigations, Environmental Crimes, Economic Crimes, Forensic
Science, English language, Martial Arts, Student Management, and
State Management and Administration.
• Knowledge and experience regarding the strategic direction of police
in Vietnam.
• Knowledge and experience of police education system and training
across specialist and core curriculum.
• Knowledge and experience of issues relating to the Women’s Union
and women in policing.
(ii) Students at the People's Police Academy – the criteria for selection were:

• A mixture of males and females undertaking subjects including

Criminal Police, Criminal Investigation, Traffic Policing, Environmental
Crimes, Economic Crimes, Forensics, English language and
Administration; representing urban and rural backgrounds.20 Included
a mixture of students across the 1-5-year degree program.
(iii) Professionals, experts, academics and observers of public security issues in
Vietnam – the criteria for selection were:

20
The initial proposal sought to interview students from ethnic minorities. A liaison officer said
there were few students from ethnic minorities and that to be interviewed by a foreigner would
be ‘sensitive’ for both the student and the organisation. I did not pursue this.
84
 • Knowledge of public security issues in Vietnam, e.g., officials from
international law enforcement agencies, i.e., United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime; international agencies, i.e., United Nations
Development Program, Human Rights Watch; international visiting
academics or trainers working with the People’s Police Academy; local
Vietnamese academics engaged in police studies; representatives
from local and international non-government organisations and civil
society who engage with police on public security issues.

The People’s Police Academy has a regulation that any staff or student contact
with a foreigner (inside or outside of training hours or facilities) must be reported
to a supervisor. A non-negotiable condition of the research was that the names
of all PPA staff and students interviewed were to be recorded and made available
to the academy to abide by this regulation. While this presents concerns for
participant anonymity and confidentiality, interviewees were aware of this
regulation and the reporting requirement prior to giving consent to an interview
(see section below on data integrity).

At the PPA, the liaison officers were given a list of criteria for selecting interview
participants. The liaison officers then contacted the heads of relevant
departments explaining the purpose of the research and to ask them (or their
delegate) to seek expressions of interest from staff and students who met the
criteria provided to participate in an interview. Snowball sampling was used where
participants nominated someone else who met the selection criteria. On one
occasion, an interpreter asked the student at the conclusion of an interview if he
could recommend someone else to be part of the research. The student said he
thought one of his friends might be interested. The interpreter encouraged him to
telephone his friend immediately whilst in my presence to arrange a time.
Although the friend did not answer the call, the process indicated that potential
participants were not necessarily vetted (by senior officers) prior to being invited
to speak to me. On most occasions a liaison officer or interpreter arranged the
appointments and interview rooms on site at the academy, however, where it was
convenient for the interviewee I would meet them offsite, in a café or private
residence.
85
Only two student interviewees declined to allow their interviews to be audio
recorded. In a sensitive political environment, interviewees may have considered
audio recording would ensure an accurate record of interview thereby putting
them at ease. Where a person was interviewed more than once, subsequent
interviews were not uniformly audio recorded.

Due to the nature of observation, it was impracticable to seek written and

informed consent from all police recruits, staff or officers as this may number
more than hundreds or thousands. During the course of the research, many
informal discussions with police or people with close police connections took
place in a range of social and professional settings.

Purposive sampling of professionals, experts, academics and observers of public

security issues in Vietnam was sought by the researcher. Potential interviewees
were invited to participate in the study and were provided a Participant
Information Statement and Consent form in Vietnamese or English. An interpreter
was used if necessary. The regulation of the Police Academy regarding the
reporting of staff and student contact with a foreigner does not apply to
participants outside the Police Academy and their involvement does not have to
be reported to the International Co-operation Department, thus protecting the
confidentiality and anonymity of their involvement. Interviews with participants in
this category were conducted at a location of their choice, usually an office or
café.

Interview data was collected in several ways:

a. Direct quote from Vietnamese participant spoken in English to

researcher and recorded using notes where English capability was
variable.

b. Direct quote from Vietnamese participant written in English to

researcher online and recorded as written including grammatical
flaws.

c. Quote from Vietnamese participant spoken in Vietnamese to

researcher and recorded using notes written (often using a
combination of English and Vietnamese) at the time or from
86
 memory after the conversation took place and paraphrased where
necessary.

d. Interpreted by Vietnamese person with variable English capability.

Here, it is assumed to an extent that the participant spoke with
correct grammar in their native language but that the limitations of
the interpreter meant it was reported to the researcher with
grammatical errors. Where the interview was audio recorded, these
were reviewed and corrected.

Data analysis

Data collected from all sources were analysed by examining the themes from
policing literature in other countries and identifying broad similarities and
differences with the data from Vietnam. Particular attention was given to areas of
difference so that new themes or new relationships between themes were
identified and explored. The data was collated manually according to themes.
Notably, the themes identified regarding gender in policing (Chapter 8) remained
quite stable throughout the process and resembled many issues identified in
Western literature. In contrast, the analysis regarding becoming and working as
a police officer (Chapters 6 and 7) was adapted numerous times as new themes
emerged which diverged from orthodox literature on police culture. The process
included sifting through hand-written and typed field notes, photographs, and
online sources as well as interview transcripts and sorting them progressively
according to emerging themes (Seidel, 1998).

Research costs

On advice from the Vietnamese Consulate in Sydney, to obtain a visa, the PPA
had to lodge an application on my behalf with the Department of Immigration. I
was issued a three-month education visa, which I extended for a further three
months in-country through the PPA’s International Co-ordination Department for
the standard fee of approximately AUD$240 in total.

87
UNSW provided AUD$5000 towards the cost of flights, accommodation,
translation and some equipment (audio recorder and printer). The researcher
contributed personally where there was a shortfall in expenses.

Most interviews were conducted at the participant’s place of work, during work
hours, and so compensation for time or incidental costs were unnecessary.21 Due
to security concerns, the People’s Police Academy provided interpreters who
were either students or staff at no cost (although there were issues around
availability and potential risks for data integrity, as further discussed below).
Where interviews took place outside the academy, in many cases, participants
paid for drinks or meals (usually between AUD$1.50-20), insisting that I was a
guest in their country and that it was polite for them to pay on my behalf. In several
cases, interviewees said they preferred to pay because it was the proper manner
for a man to do so for a woman even though the meeting was at my request. One
added that he would feel embarrassed in front of the waitress to have a woman
pay for his meal (a $2 bowl of soup). At the conclusion of the fieldwork, some key
facilitators for the study were dined at the researcher’s expense to thank them for
their support.

Limitations

This was the first study of its kind on Vietnamese police, and the first to receive
official endorsement at the Ministerial level. Like other law enforcement agencies,
the Vietnamese police were cautious about what information would be accessible
to an external researcher. In spite of its useful and original contribution to the
literature on the global South, there are a number of limitations to the research,
which are discussed below.

Informed consent, data integrity and presenting a social reality

As I was about to start my interviews, I was told I had to provide a list of

participants to the President of the Police Academy. I was informed there were
specific regulations related to monitoring police interactions with foreigners which

21
Ethics approval provided for $10 reimbursement for interviewees although it was not
expended.
88
I had not identified during my discussions with the liaison officers prior to arriving
in Hanoi. I had to seek a modification to approve these new limitations on
confidentiality and anonymity and I am grateful to my supervisors for addressing
these with the ethics committee at UNSW in my absence. A modification request
for the participant information, consent and confidentiality process was approved
after it was emphasised to the ethics committee that, for police in Vietnam,
surveillance of their interactions with foreigners was a routine condition and,
therefore, not exceptional.

To ensure participants consented voluntarily and willingly, especially given the

limitations on anonymity and confidentiality, interviewees at the PPA were
informed that it was a requirement of the International Co-operation Department
to supply a report about the research to the Rector of the Police Academy, which
may include the names of Police Academy staff and student participants and,
possibly, some of the content of the interview. At the end of fieldwork, a report
summarising some of the findings was provided to the academy. It did not include
the names of participants. The interpreters and liaison officers signed a
Confidentiality Agreement in the presence of the participant or explained to the
participant that the interpreter had already signed one which confirmed the
interpreter would not release any information or discuss any information with
anyone ‘unless in accordance with a direction from the Rector of the People’s
Police Academy’. The right for interviewees to withdraw at any time was
emphasised; they did not have to answer every question if they chose not to for
any reason, nor have to explain the reason for not answering.

However, when conditions of anonymity and confidentiality are removed, there

are implications for honesty and openness which may affect the integrity of the
data. I have paid close attention to information used to identify who is quoted so
as to mitigate risk of them being identified by people outside the Police Academy.
Recognising that the perspective of students may change between their first and
fourth year,22 I have not stated their year level to protect their identity. Lecturers
have not had their departmental affiliation recorded for similar reasons, as some
departments may be small and leave participants identifiable. One drawback of

22
2016 was the final year for five-year police degrees. I refer to fourth-year students as final
year as most students will graduate under the new regulations. See Chapter 5 for more details.
89
this practice is that removing identifying data relating to participants’ experience
and specialist fields may adversely affect meaning and obscure important
descriptors informing a specific viewpoint, as argued by Salemink (2014) who
weighed the importance of protecting participants with presenting meaningful
insights.

Participant responses may have been influenced by the fact they had been
informed that their responses may be reported to the President of the Police
Academy. For example, some participants’ responses were at odds with
information sourced from other literature or open sources, which could indicate a
concern for the requirement to report to the President. The circumstances of the
police shape the way they express themselves and reflects the theoretical
framework informing this study – that the notion of the ‘field’, as described by
Bourdieu (1990a) and Chan (1997) produces and shapes the habitus
(dispositions) of police. For example, one male student apologised for being
unable to answer some questions by responding, ‘I’m sorry that I can’t be more
open with you’. Another male student was more explicit about the limitations he
experienced:

I haven’t been totally honest with you … but the anxiety I

feel in not telling you the truth is overwhelmed by my anxiety
about saying anything bad about the government or Party.
We are taught not to show weakness, only to show our
strengths. If as police, we show weakness, people might
use it against us and manipulate us. So, we always have to
act like everything is working well, even though it may not
be. (Police student, male)

Police interview responses that accord with the ‘official line’ are reported
elsewhere (Rowe, 2007) and not unique to Vietnam, although broader cultural
parameters may shape the extent to which police officers deviate from what they
perceive as acceptable to senior officers (Belur, 2014). The fact that some
students and officers apologised for not feeling able to provide more detail or
insights demonstrated an unexpected opening in the police culture. That they
were actively reflecting on the constraints and possible consequences of
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expressing certain perspectives reveals a sense of agency amongst some of the
students and officers. Accounts provided by research participants to
ethnographers are a presentation of their social reality. Van Maanen (2011, p.
28) emphasises that ‘culture is not strictly speaking a scientific object’, it is an
active creation which is interpreted and written into an ethnography for the reader
who may well have their own interpretation of the text and reflect the findings as
I have presented them in the following chapters.

Interpretation and translation

An overall limitation of the study was that the Police Academy would not allow an
external and independent interpreter which would have aided accuracy. The
research was endorsed by the Deputy Minister of Public Security on the condition
that a staff member from the International Co-operation Department (or appointed
liaison officers) accompany the researcher whilst undertaking fieldwork at the
Police Academy (although in practice I was often left unaccompanied). Any
accompanying staff or students were required to sign a confidentiality agreement
regarding their involvement in the research. Participants were informed of the
requirement for International Co-operation Department staff (or their nominee) to
be present during interviews and were informed that they do not have to
participate if this arrangement is of concern to them. However, it must be noted
that in-country fieldwork supervisor, Dr Khuất Thị Hải Oanh, advised me during a
consultation that an accompanying police officer is likely to put participants at
ease rather than inhibit their involvement; this view is supported by Sowerwine
(2004) who thought having an official and approved ‘research assistant’ meant
villagers may have felt more comfortable speaking with her, as well as acting as
a form of protection for her from potential claims of pursuing ‘politically sensitive’
information.

Another limitation is that languages do not necessarily translate directly, and

interpreters may not interpret exactly what the English speaker or Vietnamese
speaker says but rather an account which encompasses the ‘meaning’ of what is
being said. This means that the interpreter can have a significant impact on how
questions are understood and their subsequent responses. In the context of how
this study was conducted, the hectic schedule of meetings at the Police Academy
91
one day and commencing interviews the next, I did not brief interpreters on
interview questions prior to the interviews. As interpreters were rotated based on
their availability, it was not uncommon for me to meet the interpreter at the same
time as the participant. After the first week of interviews, which were conducted
in rapid succession, I had time to discuss with the interpreters the aims of the
research as well as to explain some terms and definitions in more depth.
Furthermore, the occasional use of student interpreters with senior staff members
may have influenced how certain questions were framed, especially given that
direct translations from English to Vietnamese may not necessarily capture
correct ‘meaning’ and that the supervisor-subordinate relationship may further
affect how or what meaning is conveyed.

The use of a police officer or student as an interpreter may have had an effect on
the openness of interviewees. Though local advice was that a police officer
employed as interpreter would make participants more comfortable, it is not clear
from this research to what extent this was the case. On one occasion an
interpreter sought to reassure an interviewee by saying: ‘Be more flexible, give
more information. The project is approved by the MPS [Ministry of Public Security]
so don’t worry’. Although interviews were audio recorded, having an interpreter
present may have been a form of insurance against fear of being misquoted or
accused of releasing confidential information. When participating in a recorded
interview, one Police Academy lecturer, who also acted as interpreter for others,
requested another officer interpret the interview. When asked why he wanted his
own interpreter when his English was quite good, he replied that he was worried
his English wasn’t good enough to express his thoughts as clearly as he wanted
(he participated in a two-hour interview and provided detailed responses).
Indeed, the new interpreter had excellent English, and although the interviewee
in this case went on to interpret further interviews for me, it seems he was less
concerned about his accuracy in conveying to me the ideas of others compared
with his own – if that was, indeed, the reason for the presence of a third person.
This apparent anxiety, of either their level of proficiency in English or being alone
with me in an interview, was not apparent with several other students and officers
who would try their best to speak English without others present.

92
Ethnography or espionage

The motivations of police researchers are often regarded with suspicion by those
being studied, in part due to the potential to report misconduct (Chan, 2012; Chan
et al., 2003; Dixon, 2011; Marks, 2005; Westmarland, 2001). One police officer
remarked that he was not sure whether I was a spy. Although he did not seek a
response from me, I wondered what the difference was. I asked: ‘Why would
someone want to spy on the police in Vietnam?’ He responded: ‘I don’t know.
Maybe to go back to report to their government’. That he was concerned less with
the prospect of reporting to immediate line managers or a domestic body than
with how information may potentially be used by a government abroad may
indicate that the scope associated with risk aversion is wide, and inclusive of a
foreign audience, rather than the more proximate possibility of internal (police)
repercussions. However, I was unsure of the depth of his concern about ‘spying’
or whether his uncertainty was genuine.

In many studies, police culture is viewed pejoratively, as something that facilitates

or entrenches poor practices and conduct (Dean, 1995; Goldsmith, 1990;
Greene, 2000; Paoline, 2003; Reiner, 2010). In light of this, I did not emphasise
‘culture’ as a core part of the research in my initial discussions with the
Vietnamese police. It was instructive, then, when an officer insisted culture –
particularly Vietnamese cultural identity – was central to my topic and a key
consideration in how I interpreted my data. The historical context of Vietnam is
important here. That culture in Vietnam can refer to both a high culture associated
with inherited Confucian ideology, art and literature, as well as a way of ‘doing
things’, appears to make the concept less laden with negativity than I had
expected from reading the Anglo-American literature. As such, referring to
‘culture’ became a useful tool to enquire about practices and ideas in Vietnamese
policing with a view to understanding and potentially allaying concerns about
being a ‘spy’.

I was aware of political sensitivities concerning the study of police in Vietnam and
to avoid risks to participants and myself, I engaged in self-censorship when
pursuing certain lines of questioning. My approach was inconsistent to the extent
that it would often depend on how well I knew the interviewee and others present.

93
Self-censorship was frustrating because I would at times omit questions which,
while not specifically related to my research questions, may have helped me
understand the broader, often political, context of a topic under discussion. One
participant, a person I considered a friend, accused me of straying from my
research topic in response to a general – and, to me, relatively benign – question
about Vietnamese society. Xu (2016) refers to self-censorship in researching
police in China as an ’invisible hand’ which subtly shapes the production of
knowledge, especially since scholars have to consider prospects for publication
when pursuing research topics. Petit (2014, p. 156) refers to researchers in post-
socialist countries as ‘experts’ in self-censorship.

Self-censorship may be practiced at various points during research, for example,

during fieldwork or in the dissemination of findings, to mitigate risks to in-country
collaborators, researchers or officials who may potentially ‘suffer severe
consequences’ (Petit, 2014, pp. 156-157). Negotiating positionality was a
constant concern in the course of my research. The prospect of having official
approvals withdrawn or being deported have been justifications for self-
censorship by other scholars (Turner, 2014). I was surprised when warned by
several well-placed and knowledgeable expatriates that I should take care in my
research in order to avoid being deported. At no time have I considered my
research to have encroached on issues warranting risk of deportation and
therefore have not felt the need for concern – albeit, perhaps naïvely, as I discuss
in Chapter 7. Nonetheless, I was cognisant to avoid some topics which were not
central to my research. That is not to say talking about, for example, the Party
and politics was off-limits but, rather, that I did not seek to question the one-party
system as the legitimate political system for Vietnam.

Moral responsibility

This study specifically set out to explore perceptions of police officers and police
culture. Though police culture is a product of the relationship between officers
and the community, the views and experiences of the latter were not the focus of
this study. To an extent, the proscription of my observation of police at stations
communicated to me by my liaison officers provided me with some measure of
immunity against a number of the ethical challenges faced by scholars whose
94
research involves community experiences of policing (Jauregui, 2013; Marks,
2005; Norris, 1993; Reiner, 2000; Rowe, 2007; Westmarland, 2001). Becker
(1967) describes how criticism may be levelled at researchers who side with
participants who may be deemed either ‘deviant’ or, conversely, those to people
holding institutional power. However, a ‘one-sided’ view reflects immersive
approaches to research which is justifiable as long as bias and subjectivity are
acknowledged. One concern with taking an empathetic view when studying police
in Vietnam is that, by portraying police as individuals with personal and family
needs (rather than one-dimensional figures symbolic of the state) justifications
for what may be considered as misconduct may risk giving legitimacy to illegal or
unethical behaviour. For example, there may be different interpretations with
respect to giving or receiving appreciation money, informal payments or bribery.
Despite this, people who are persuaded or coerced into paying these ‘fees’ for
police services (for example, processing paperwork) or to avoid even higher costs
associated with violations (for example, traffic violations) likely feel aggrieved
regardless of the police officer’s personal circumstances.

In her study on police in Uttar Pradesh, India, Jauregui (2013) reflects on the role
of ethnographer as she observed officers frequently inflicting violence on
members of the community – as well as being victims of violence (and bribery)
themselves. She calls for an ethical standpoint of ‘strategic complicity’ which
acknowledges that the ‘so-called “powerful” or authoritative agents … [who] often
are not as hyper-empowered as they seem’ (Jauregui, 2013, p. 147). Thus,
Jauregui (2013, p. 147) argues that ethical engagement with police is a singular
pursuit to critically engage with them at the same time they continue ‘to exist and
contribute to the building of knowledge with [their] own voice’. Belur (2014, p.
190) writes that her research in India simultaneously gave ‘voice’ to police officers
while providing an opportunity to ‘learn from good practice and avoid mistakes’.
Whilst there is widespread knowledge of systemic corruption amongst public
officials in Vietnam, there is also risk of exposing police involved in this study who
discussed the topic with me. The findings seek to draw some attention to the oft-
hidden explanations as to why police engage in such conduct.

95
Illness in the field

Illness is a factor which shapes a researcher’s positionality in the field. It is not

uncommon for researchers in a foreign country to suffer illness due to changes
in their environment, food and water consumption, and, in less developed sites,
hygiene. In this study, I suffered symptoms of PTSD for the entirety of my six
months in the field. Having lived with the often-debilitating condition for more than
ten years, I did not postpone my fieldwork even though symptoms worsened just
prior to traveling to Hanoi. To some degree, I had anticipated (or hoped) the
change in scenery might prompt a cessation to the pattern of experiencing series
of consecutive days with little to no sleep and days (sometimes weeks) where I
was frequently bedridden for extended periods. At the time, my social networks
in Hanoi were as strong as they were in Sydney, having moved interstate (from
Victoria) for my candidature at UNSW. During my frequent travel to Vietnam I
also accessed psychological services a number of times and, in 2013, suffered
four pelvic fractures in a traffic collision which involved a medical evacuation. I
am thus infinitely more familiar with the country’s hospital and health system than
I had ever hoped to be. During my fieldwork I was also involved in a minor collision
as a passenger on a motorbike taxi. I did not need medical treatment at the time,
however, the following day I felt soreness around my pelvis and became
concerned that I may have disrupted the previous injury. A subsequent X-ray
showed there to be no fractures and the soreness dissipated within a week. A
fellow Australian with a research interest in Vietnam once quipped that being
involved in a traffic collision in-country was simply an occupational hazard.

Just as self-censorship has certain effects on research, so too, self-criticism can

be a destabilising force in research. Naturally, researchers can be self-critical
about many aspects of their work – from the quality and comprehensiveness of
data collection to the interpretation and analysis of the data. In my case, I lament
the extent that my PTSD symptoms affected my capacity to spend more time
undertaking interviews or observation when it was available to me. During a
particularly difficult time, I cancelled numerous interview appointments at the PPA
in succession. I was worried that I not only appeared unprofessional and
unreliable, but that it caused inconvenience for the interviewees and liaison
officers facilitating the appointments. Eventually, I decided I needed to offer an
96
explanation. Thankfully, I had known some of the liaison officers for several years
and, although they were aware that PTSD was the reason I was no longer a police
officer, they were not aware that my symptoms were ongoing (usually periodic)
nor how it affected my sleep and cognitive capacity. Although it was disconcerting
to reveal details about my condition, I was humbled by their support, sincerity and
their subsequent regular efforts to check on my welfare. Researchers can try to
deliberately present themselves in particular ways with a view to accessing a
deeper dialogue with specific audiences (Goldsmith, 2003; Smith, 2006; Turner,
2014, p. 8); sometimes a particular positionality may be the result of circumstance
rather than deliberate choice. Whilst unplanned in my case, it is possible that
demonstrating vulnerability as a researcher and exposing oneself as a
multidimensional person strengthened relationships and rapport with some of
those involved in this study.

Conclusion

The police involved in the study and I navigated our way through discussions
about confidentiality, independence of the research, possibilities for censorship,
and, written and unwritten rules. There was also uneven transparency about the
fact the research was being undertaken at all. On some occasions I was on
display as a VIP at a graduation ceremony and at other times informed to keep a
low profile. In time, I hope that concerns are ameliorated as public security
agencies view academic examination as an opportunity to improve the functions
of policing for the benefit of both the community and the officers tasked with
carrying out the work.

Throughout the following chapters, I have contextualised interview data with my

observations and where possible triangulated data using documentary sources
and other interview sources. Whilst I hope this research makes a valuable
contribution to scholarship on policing in Vietnam, it is important to acknowledge
its gaps and where it remains silent or vague.

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Chapter 5: Overview of police history, structures and
organisation in Vietnam

Introduction

In 2015, the 70th anniversary of the People’s Police was marked by the re-opening
and refurbishment of the Hanoi Police Museum in Lý Thường Kiệt Street. Among
the illustrations displayed on the white building’s painted translucent windows
were a white dove (the international symbol of peace), the familiar face of Hồ Chí
Minh, and a traffic police officer, dressed in modern attire, guiding an elderly man
to safety. These illustrations hint at the story that unfolds inside: from the historic
role of police in securing independence and peace for a country under siege to
their present-day tasks of helping people to navigate the challenges posed by
rapid economic development and changing urban life. Inside the museum,
mannequins dressed in various iterations of police uniforms stand alongside a
display of epaulettes indicating police ranks. The walls are adorned with maps,
photographs and descriptions of people, places and events. The curation of
artefacts emphasises what is important in the official history of the police: a faded
typed page, dated September 1949, with the codes and ciphers used by secret
agents of the Hanoi Police; the 1949 Hanoi Police ‘Golden Book’ of the actions
of infiltrators; and wooden plates for creating false French papers. The exhibits
pay tribute to the humble beginnings of the now national People’s Police Force
whose founding ‘agents’ were intelligent, meticulous, systematic and innovative
(Fieldnotes, 2016).

The re-opening of the Hanoi Police Museum is one aspect of what Grossheim
(2018, p. 449) argues is a deliberate campaign aimed at ‘heroizing and
romanticizing the history of the People’s Public Security Forces – simultaneously
legitimizing the VCP’s [Vietnamese Communist Party] one-party rule’. In 2017,
the People’s Police Academy unveiled a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of
the first socialist security apparatus in Russia (People's Police Academy, 2017d).
The installation emphasises the Soviet-style roots of the security forces, police
and Communist Party. It is an example of the way the Communist Party uses
‘cultural projects’ to shape a national identity which was the subject of debate as
its forces prepared for the final defeat of the French in northern Vietnam in the
98
1940s-50s (G. E. Dutton et al., 2012; Ninh, 2002). The debates concerned the
extent to which the past should be preserved ‘in order to safeguard the future’ or
be destroyed in order to make way for a new future (Ninh, 2002, p. 57). History
shows that both preservation and destruction occurred as well as a deliberate
construction of a ‘new’ Vietnam.

This chapter focuses on the post-1945 period and the emergence of a police force
similar to our Western understanding of police. It is important to note that
Vietnam’s long history, which dates back thousands of years, has been
influenced by a blend of local and foreign ideas. What is ‘Vietnamese’ cannot
easily be disentangled from these influences (see G. E. Dutton et al., 2012;
Goscha, 2016a; Taylor, 2013). I draw on aspects of Vietnam’s history to provide
an overview of the field of policing,23 including a history of the People’s Police
Force, its relationship to the political system and other institutions, formal and
informal mechanisms for crime and social control, the legal and organisational
framework, and an introduction to police recruitment policies and education.

The emergence of the People’s Police Force

The Hanoi Police Museum (2017) honours police ‘who were engaged in the fight
against the traitors and the collaborators of the French and the Japanese in order
to protect the Party and the revolutionary movements and participate in the
insurrection of 1945’. Specifically, the museum pays tribute to police units
including: ‘Red Militia’, ‘Labour-peasants Militia’, ‘Honor Groups for the
Repression of the Traitors’, and ‘Reconnaissance Groups’, some of which
operated in the decade or so leading up to the August 1945 overthrow of the
colonial French forces in Hanoi under the leadership of Hồ Chí Minh. The actions
of Vietnamese spies and use of force by organised groups fighting the French
(and Japanese) on the basis of patriotism and nationalism, were the illegal
beginnings of what would later become the Vietnamese People’s Police Force
(Tởng Cục Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân, 1995a, p. 11). As discussed in Chapter 2, the

23
The principal focus of fieldwork for this study was in Hanoi, thus, the brief history provided
here describes the development of police in northern Vietnam. For the development of a police
force in the south see, among others, Rosenau (2005), Elkind (2016), and Hoyt (1956).

99
victory was short-lived and the French military won out again the following year,
extending their rule for almost a decade (Thayer, 2010, 425). The date of the
August Revolution, August 19, 1945, 24 is now a national holiday to celebrate
police stipulated by law (National Assembly, 2014, Article 6). The remit of police
in this period blended foreign and domestic security concerns. The official history
of public security forces in the 1930-40s refers to their role in ‘maintain[ing] order
and security in the villages and communes’ under the control of communist forces
(Cổng thông tin điện tử Bộ Công an, 2018). However, it is noteworthy that the
Hanoi Police Museum emphasises the ‘revolutionary’ activities of early police, as
per the following summary, on display at the museum:

The police were pioneers in the creation of networks in

Hanoi: gaining information on the enemy, creating urban
bases, starting operations to kill the traitors, for example:
the elimination of Truong Dinh Tri [a traitor]. At the same
time, they organized actions of espionage and counter-
espionage in political and military circles and the French
intelligence. (Hanoi Police Museum, 2017)

The first police unit took its name from its colonial designation, the Tonkin
Security Police, established in 1945 in northern Vietnam. 25 The first formal
proclamation of police authority came with Edict 23 (Sắc lệnh 23, 1946) which
established the ‘Việt Nam Công an Vụ’ (Vietnam Public Security
Service/Department). The edict gave jurisdiction for police to: detect information
and documents relating to both internal and external national security threats;
devise and implement strategies to prevent political disturbances from both
Vietnamese and foreign persons; and to investigate and pursue suspects for
prosecution in court (Sắc lệnh 23, 1946). Official documents describe the role of
Vietnamese police and security services as being involved in educating the
people about political ideology and Communist Party policies (Tởng Cục Cảnh

24
One of the first signs inside the Hanoi Police Museum states under the heading ‘1945-1946,
The Protection of the Revolutionary Government, On August 19th, 1945 the victorious
revolution in Hanoi results in independence and liberty. This date is called: “Day of the Police”
from the “Soviet Movement” in Nghệ-Tĩnh in 1930-31’.
25
Also in August 1945 the Reconnaissance Service was established in central Vietnam and the
National Self Defense in southern Vietnam (Hanoi Police Museum, 2015)
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Sát Nhân Dân, 1995a). In 1946, a Decision was passed stipulating the
organisational structure according to national, regional and provincial jurisdictions
(Nghị định 121-NV/NĐ, 1946).

In 1953, Hồ Chí Minh signed Edict 141/SL (Sắc lệnh 141/SL, 1953) which
upgraded the status of security apparatus to a sub-Ministry of Public Security
(renamed the Ministry of Interior). The sub-Ministry comprised seven
departments, among them the predecessor to the People’s Police Force and a
Department of Political Protection. Their tasks included fighting ‘spies and
reactionaries’, protecting the national economy, counter and international
espionage, eliminating ‘social evils’ and keeping public order and safety as well
as managing prisons and ‘educating prisoners’ (Sắc lệnh 141/SL, 1953, Article
2).

In July 1956, Decision 982/TT (1956) established the People’s Police which was
tasked with building the force ‘professionally, politically, militarily and culturally’
(Tởng Cục Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân, 1995b). Further development of the structure
and organisation were stipulated eight years later with Decree 34/LCT (1962). In
1981, Decision 250/CP established the General Police Department and set out
different levels of administration for the national police force under the Ministry of
Interior (later reverted to the Ministry of Public Security) (Tởng Cục Cảnh Sát
Nhân Dân, 1995c, pp. 136-139). The police continue to develop to meet modern
demands although the political roots of police are still celebrated. In 2015, the
Government awarded the People’s Police Force a Gold Star (for the fourth time)
and paid tribute to the ‘revolutionary heroes’ and ‘martyrs’ who fought for national
independence 70 years ago (Nhân Dân, 2015).

Police and the political system

The Police and the country’s ruling Communist Party have been inextricably
linked from the time of the August Revolution in 1945. In addition to policing crime
and political opponents, they were also tasked with mobilising popular support for
the Communist Party in the lead up to their 1954 defeat of French military forces
in Điện Biên Phủ and of the American forces in 1975 (Tởng Cục Cảnh Sát Nhân
Dân, 1995a). Under the Constitution, the police are considered as a ‘well-trained
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regular army’ (2013, Article 67) and must be loyal to the political and government
institutions. Reference to the police as an ‘army’ highlights the naissance of
Vietnamese policing through the struggle against foreign occupation. Indeed, the
Law on People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014) jointly
outlines the organisation, operations, functions, tasks and powers of police, the
army and intelligence agencies in one proclamation. The Constitution outlines the
centrality of loyalty to the Party:

The people's armed forces must show absolute loyalty to

the Fatherland, the People, the Party, and the State; their
duty is to protect national independence and sovereignty,
the country's unity and territorial integrity, national security
and social order, to protect the People, the Party, the State,
and the socialist regime and the fruits of the revolution, and
to join the entire people in national construction and
fulfilment of international duties. (2013, Article 65)

The relationship between the police and Party is made further explicit under the
Law on People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014) which states:

The People’s Public Security Forces are placed under the

absolute, direct and comprehensive leadership of the
Communist Party of Vietnam and the supreme command of
the State President, the unified management by the
Government and the direct command and management by
the Public Security Minister. (National Assembly, 2014,
Article 5.1)

Opposition to the Party is a crime (National Assembly, 2015a, Article 109). The
revised Criminal Code prohibits activities which oppose the Government and
Party, or disseminates distorted or fabricated information about the state (Article
117). 26 The implications for policing are that the policing of anti-Government

26
These powers were used against pro-democracy activists, notably ‘Bloc 8406’ where, in
2006, activists were arrested and eventually sentenced to imprisonment for their campaign (C.
A. Thayer, 2009b, 2014). Since 2006, anti-Government sentiment has expanded from a narrow
pro-democracy focus to target other aspects of discontent among the population, particularly

102
sentiment requires surveillance and intervention for ‘making, storing, spreading
information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing’ the state (Article 117).
The relationship between the police and government is such that anti-police
sentiment equates to anti-government sentiment which means that people critical
of police may be committing a crime.

Codes of ethics for police

Codes of ethics or conduct are sources of authority to guide the ethical decisions
and actions of police. In Vietnam, there are three main guides which have evolved
over time. Hồ Chí Minh first set out standards for conduct in 1948 with ‘Uncle Hồ's
6 Teachings to the Public Security Forces’.

A cadre should be ‘industrious, economical, honest, [and]

correct; kind and helpful toward colleagues; absolutely loyal
toward the government; respectful and polite toward the
people; devoted to his work; [and] resolute and clever vis-
à-vis the enemy.’ (Hồ Chí Minh, 2000, pp. 404-405)

The six teachings continue to be featured prominently in official publications and

ceremonies, especially since the 70th anniversary of the police in 2015 (Lời Bác
dạy giúp hoàn thiện phẩm chất người chiến sĩ công an, 2018). In 1954, after the
French had been defeated and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam established,
a notice was printed in the newspaper ‘Nhân Dân’ (The People) outlining rules of
behaviour (Ten Disciplines) for the Ministry of Interior, its cadres and public
employees. These included: the protection of public property and warnings
against arbitrary arrest (except of those who continue to oppose the government
and people), taking bribes or keeping seized money or property, engaging in
drinking alcohol or gambling, going to a salon (i.e. bar) or harassing women,
among others (Nhân Dân, 1954).27

environmental degradation, corruption and handling of the relationship with China – especially
disputed sovereignty in the South China Sea (East Sea) (Thayer, 2014).
27
A slightly revised version was later published in the History of the Vietnamese People’s Police
by the Ministry of Interior (Tởng Cục Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân, 1995a, pp. 174-175).
103
In 2008, the Minister of Public Security issued Decision 09/2008/QĐ-BCA (Bộ
trưởng Bộ Công an, 2008) to update the ‘5 Oaths’ and ’10 Disciplines’, last
revised in 1997. The 5 Oaths of the Vietnamese People’s Police Force are similar
to the first five (of six) ‘obligations and responsibilities’ found in Article 30 of the
Law on People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014). All six are
detailed in Table 2.

Obligations and responsibilities of People’s Public Security officers, non-

Table 2.
commissioned officers and men

1. To be absolutely loyal to the Fatherland, the People, the Party and the
State.

2. To strictly abide by the line of the Party, policies and laws of the State,
regulations of the People’s Public Security Forces, and directives and
orders of their superiors.

3. To be honest, brave, vigilant and ready to fight and fulfil all assigned
tasks.

4. To respect and protect the lawful rights and interests of agencies,

organisations and individuals; to maintain close contact with the People;
to dedicatedly serve the People, to respect and be polite to the People.

5. To regularly study to raise their political, legal, scientific-technical and

professional levels; to temper their revolutionary quality, sense of
organisation and discipline and physical strength.

6. To be answerable before law and their superiors for their own orders, the
execution of their superiors’ orders and the performance by their
subordinates. Upon receipt of commanders’ orders, if having grounds to
believe that such orders are unlawful, to immediately report them to the
persons who have issued the orders; if still having to obey the orders, to
promptly report them to the immediate superiors of the order issuers and
to bear no responsibility for the consequences of the execution of such

104
 orders.

Source: National Assembly (2014) Article 30.

The 10 Disciplines of the People’s Public Security Forces (Bộ trưởng Bộ Công
an, 2008) expand on and revise those first published in 1954 and are shown in
Table 3.

Table 3. Ten Disciplines of the People’s Public Security Forces

Article 1.

Public Security officers and soldiers must not have any word or act which can affect
the prestige and honour of the Motherland and the Vietnam Communist Party, or
harm the stability and strength of the State of the Social Republic of Vietnam, or
bring discredit to the People’s Public Security Forces’ honour and tradition.

Article 2.

Public Security officers and soldiers must absolutely comply with and fully implement
the People’s Public Security Forces’ regulations, always be ready to receive and
successfully fulfil their assigned tasks.

Article 3.

Public Security officers and soldiers must strictly observe the law, regulations and
instructions regarding secrecy and confidentiality of the Party, the State and the
People’s Public Security Forces.

Article 4.

Public Security officers and soldiers must always be upright, honest, and protect the
rightness or challenge and take action against misconduct and violations; and must
not hide or report untruth to the Party, the State and the People’s Public Security
Forces.

Article 5.

Public Security officers and soldiers will always uphold the spirit of unconditional
service to the people. They must always have a warm, polite attitude and retain
proportionate behaviour when contact with people, and respect older persons, love

105
children; must ensure the principle of non-bias treatment to women, help and support
disabled people.

Public Security officers and soldiers must always make sure that their behaviour or
word will not be deemed by the public impolite, rude, authoritarian, troublesome, or
unreasonably slandering others and the people.

Article 6.

Public Security officers and soldiers will constantly study and develop themselves,
strictly implement fundamental ethical values: Thrift, Integrity, Just, Impartiality. They
will not misuse or abuse their powers, positions, duties or work reputation to gain
benefits for themselves or other persons. They must be determined not to engage in
any act of corruption, not to embezzle, waste; not to give, to ask for or accept any
form of bribery in any circumstance and condition. They must also strive towards
exemplary implementation of the cultural lifestyle.

Article 7.

Public Security officers and soldiers must resolutely struggle to defeat all
conspiracies, activities that harm the Motherland’s security and order; cause damage
to the State property; constitute a risk to the health and safety of the people as well
as their legitimate rights and interests. They must not harm decent people, not shield
evildoers; not leave out criminals, and not unjustly punish innocent people.

Article 8.

Public Security officers and soldiers will constantly study to raise and improve their
awareness of politics, professional competence, law, as well as their working
capacities; in order to make a contribution to build a regular, skilled and step-by-step
modern Revolutionary Public Security Forces.

Article 9.

Public Security officers and soldiers must seriously organise effective

implementation of criticism and self-criticism; preserve the unity and oneness of mind
within the forces, loving help comrades, companions. They must actively cooperate
with individuals and collective teams inside and outside the Public Security Forces in
order to accomplish excellently assigned tasks.

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 Article 10.

Public Security officers and soldiers must strictly implement the Party's policies,
guidelines, and development lines; the laws of the State and the regulations of the
local authorities of the place of residence.

Source: Bộ trưởng Bộ Công an (2008).

In sum, the three main codes of conduct for police are: ‘Uncle Ho's 6 Teachings
to the Public Security Forces’, the ‘5 Oaths of the Vietnamese People’s Police
Force’, and, the ‘10 Disciplines of the Vietnamese Public Security Forces’.28 The
codes of ethics are consistent in their requirement for loyalty to the Party and
Government, to act in service of the community, to cultivate one’s own attributes
and correct behaviour, and to be committed to executing their duties. It is notable
that ethical guidelines began to include references to police being answerable to
the law, which were not present in the earlier teachings. This may reflect the
emerging narrative of adherence to the ‘rule of law’ which, as Nicholson (2010)
suggests, may be more rhetoric that reality. Notwithstanding, Vietnam’s
integration into the global economy has demanded convergence with Western
legal models in some ways, although legal scholars argue that inconsistencies
remain, and a linear adoption of Western legal reforms should not be assumed
(Gillespie, 2010; Nicholson, 2010).

Organisation of the People’s Police Force

The organisational hierarchy of the police follows the administrative structure of

other state departments: the national General Department of Police sits under the
national Ministry of Public Security (MPS) (Bộ Công an). Subordinate to the
national level are Public Security Departments of provinces and centrally-run
cities; Public Security Offices of rural districts, urban districts, provincial towns
and provincially-run cities; and Public Security Offices of communes (xã – rural),
wards (phường – urban) and townships (National Assembly, 2014, Article 17.1).

28
6 điều Bác dạy, 5 lời thề, 10 điều kỷ luật công an nhân dân cần nhớ. In 2016, the General
Police Department was working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on a new
and comprehensive ‘Code of Conduct’ with involvement from local and foreign consultants. It
was yet to be finalised at the time of writing.
107
Party People’s Committees sit above the Police Chief at each administrative level
and disputes between Party policy and law are typically resolved in favour of the
former (Sidel, 2008). The Law on People’s Public Security Forces (National
Assembly, 2014, Article 1) sets out ‘principles of organization and operation;
functions, tasks and powers of, and regimes and policies’ for the People’s Police
Force (PPF) (and People's Security Force (PSF)). The General Police
Department (GPD) oversees functional departments which change depending on
local and international crime trends and official responses, including Department
of Drug Investigation and Control, Environment Police Department, Economic
Police Department, Department of Anti-Smuggling, Department of Hi-Tech Crime
Investigation and the Department of National Population Data Management.

Current legal frameworks guiding police activities and jurisdiction are found
among a hierarchy of laws, regulations, decisions and circulars which may be
issued at various levels of Party and Government. Official policies can be vague,
leaving room for local interpretation at lower levels resulting in uneven
implementation nationally. The Criminal Code (National Assembly, 2015a, Article
4.1) authorises the police (and prosecutors and courts) to ‘provide guidance and
assistance for other state agencies, organizations and individuals in prevention
and fight against crimes, supervision and education of criminals in the
community’. The Criminal Code sets out what may be considered mitigating and
aggravating factors for some crimes and sentencing guidelines, although in many
cases more specific details on the nature of crimes, their investigation, and
jurisdiction for investigation are found in other legislation. Some major pieces of
legislation relevant to police include: the Criminal Procedure Code (National
Assembly, 2015b), the Law on Organisation of Criminal Investigation Bodies
(National Assembly, 2015c), the Law on Handling Administrative Violations
(National Assembly, 2012), and the Circular on the Criminal Investigation Mission
in the People’s Public Security (Bộ Công an, 2014).

The police with whom the community comes into most contact is at the lowest
administrative level – the ward or commune. Police at this level have a wide remit
regarding crime control and administrative services. They are described as ‘a
part-time armed force in the organizational system of the People's Police, acting

108
as the core in the movement [to mobilise] "all people [to] protect national security
and maintain social order and safety"’ (National Assembly, 2008b, Article 3.1).
Though the Chief and senior members of a ward police station usually require a
degree qualification, many subordinates have a Police College qualification
requiring two years of study which has a lower entrance exam requirement.
However, this does not preclude them from continuing education at the PPA at a
later date. In fact, if they are already in the employment of the MPS they receive
bonus points in the eligibility scoring process. In some cases, at the lowest levels,
volunteers and retirees can work in supporting roles at police stations in plain
clothes. Others lacking formal police education can don a uniform and perform
basic traffic or public order tasks without being on the official payroll as
remuneration is received through local arrangements (especially in rural areas).
One example of neighbourhood patrols is explored further in Chapter 7. The
Ordinance on Commune Police (National Assembly, 2008b) outlines their tasks,
which include, inter alia:

• apply measures to prevent and combat crimes and other law violations
related to security, social order and safety (Article 3.2);

• manage persons under special amnesty, drug-detoxified persons and

persons having completely served their prison terms and being subject
to further management according to law (Article 9.3);

• enforce the law on residence management, people's identity cards and

other travel papers; to manage explosives, weapons and support
instruments, to prevent and fight fires, to protect the environment (Article
9.5);

• body-search, check belongings and personal papers and seize weapons

… of persons who are caught red-handed in committing illegal acts …
organize the [protection] of victims ... protect the scenes [of crimes] ...
make initial records, take testimonies of victims and witnesses … (Article
9.6);

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 • sanction administrative violations; make dossiers proposing the
application of other administrative sanctions against violators ... (Article
9.8); and,

• request agencies, organizations and individuals in communes to

coordinate activities, to supply information and perform tasks related to
the maintenance of security, social order and safety (Article 9.9).

As per Article 9.6 above, it is the responsibility of police to manage the household
registration system which was modelled on a similar system in China. The system
involved issuing a booklet to each household to record the details of all residents
(Vietnam's Household Registration System, 2016). People could not relocate
without the approval of authorities, the intention being to control rural-to-urban
migration and to monitor any potential political opposition. Though there is greater
flexibility for migration nowadays, the system is important for accessing education
and social services. Since 1964, the system has been managed by the MPS and
so the process of updating or amending household registers has been a key
reason for police-community interaction. Home visits by police for the purpose of
checking household registers have been linked to informal payments to police
(McKernan & McWhirter, 2009). In 2017, the system was upgraded to allow
residents to update their status online, which may change the nature of police
interaction with the community.

Given the broad functions of police in Vietnam, and the fact that precise police
numbers are kept confidential, it can be difficult to estimate their number,
although the figure of approximately 1.2 million has been reported (Gray, 2000;
Thayer, 2008). In 2016, the Politburo ordered the MPS to streamline its
bureaucracy, cut unnecessary departments and reduce recruitment in order to
decrease budget spending (Do, 2018).29

Eligibility, recruitment and selection

To become a police officer, applicants must be politically and morally

suitable(National Assembly, 2014, Article 7). The process includes initial

29
Although the cuts were announced in 2016, fieldwork was undertaken before they had effect
which limited exploration of their potential impact.
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verification by local authorities where one lives, followed by becoming a Party
member through official training, or a member of the Hồ Chí Minh Youth Union.
The Circular on Regulations on Admission to the People’s Police (Bộ Công An,
2016) outlines criteria for entry including age limits: 20 years old for students or
30 years old for officials, police and soldiers already on the MPS payroll (6.2.b).
Student entrants must be unmarried and have no children to meet ‘moral
standards’ (6.2). Men must be 1.64 cm and 48 kg or above; women must be 1.58
cm and 45 kg or above.30 Applicants whose parents are serving or retired police
or public security officers can receive bonus ‘points’ on top of their competitive
examination score to be considered for entry to the PPA. Female applicants must
not exceed 15 per cent of the total allocation of police recruits. In sum, these
criteria mean men, under 20 years old, who have family or relatives in the security
forces are preferred candidates.

Ranks, promotion, retirement age and salaries

The rank structure in Vietnam reflects a military approach. An officer must serve
a set number of years at each rank,31 unless authorised for earlier promotion by
exemption.32 In order to be considered for promotion, an officer ‘must fully meet
the set criteria on political quality and professional qualifications’ (National
Assembly, 2014, Article 2) which may include in-service political ideology courses
and Masters level or above degrees. Table 4 outlines the rank structure and
salary range for the category. The table also highlights the different ages at which
men and women are expected to retire and can access their social security

30
There are some variations on entry requirements for ethnic minorities to assist applicants
although overall numbers recruited are still subject to a quota.
31
Law on the People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014, Article 21.3(a))
Durations for rank promotion consideration:
Operation non-commissioned officers and officers:
Corporal to sergeant: 1 year; Sergeant to sergeant major: 1 year; Sergeant major to second
lieutenant: 2 years; Second lieutenant to lieutenant: 2 years; Lieutenant to senior lieutenant: 3
years; Senior lieutenant to captain: 3 years; Captain to major: 4 years; Major to lieutenant
colonel: 4 years; Lieutenant colonel to senior lieutenant colonel: 4 years; Senior lieutenant
colonel to colonel: 4 years; Colonel to major general: 4 years; The minimum time limit for
general rank promotion is 4 years.
32
Law on People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014, Article 2(c)) ‘People's
Public Security officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who record particularly
outstanding achievements in crime prevention and fighting and professional activities, may be
considered for a skip in ranks; if they record particularly outstanding achievements in work,
scientific research or study, they may be considered for ahead-of-time rank promotion.’
111
benefits. Officers can apply for an extension if they want to work beyond the set
retirement age.

Table 4. Rank, retirement age and salaries of the People’s Police Force
Professional officers and non- Retirement age Salary
commissioned officers rangea
Male Femaleb
Generals - Colonel 60 55 11,180,000–
(4 ranks) - Senior lieutenant 13,520,000
colonel
- Lieutenant colonel
- Major
Field officers - Colonel 60 55 10,400,000
(4 ranks) - Senior lieutenant 58 55 9,490,000
colonel
- Lieutenant colonel 55 53 8,580,000
- Major 7,800,000
Company - Captain 53 53 5,460,000–
officers (4 ranks) - Senior lieutenant 7,020,000
- Lieutenant
- Second lieutenant
Non- - Corporal 4,160,000–
commissioned - Sergeant 4,940,000
officers - Warrant officer
(3 ranks)
a. Salary (in Vietnamese đồng for period 1/7/2017–31/12/2017. Base salary rate does not
include seniority allowance and executive compensation but has a deduction for social
insurance expenses.
b. Lower age limits for women’s retirement hinders women’s opportunities for promotion,
especially given they have often taken time out of the workforce for family and child rearing
reasons (ISDS 2015). Source: Law on People's Public Security Forces (National Assembly,
2014) Articles 21 & 28. Salary ranges provided to author by PPA.

Police accountability

The People’s Police Force (PPF) is audited and supervised by government and
Party bodies (National Assembly, 2014, Article 11.1). The police (and all
Government bodies) function under supervision of the Communist Party at each
administrative level. For example, the Chief of Police (at ward, district and
provincial levels) must obey instructions from the People’s Council and People’s
Committee at the corresponding level. Each Police Chief confronts the difficulty
of being subordinate to superiors in both the police and the political hierarchies.
Despite having some drawbacks, this may allow for selective enforcement in
operational decisions (Koh, 2001, 2006). For example, Koh (2001, pp. 290-291)
describes how ward police could avoid following instructions from Party officials
112
with respect to prosecuting illegal karaoke bars by ‘play[ing] one chain of
command against another when they receive orders that they do not like to carry
out’. The MPS also has specific inspection powers outlined in the Circular on the
Criminal Investigation Mission in the People’s Public Security (Bộ Công an, 2014)
which audits police performance.

Prohibited activities of the police are stipulated as (National Assembly, 2014,

Article 30.1 & 30.2):

1. Taking advantage of their positions and vested powers to infringe upon

interests of the State, rights and legitimate interests of agencies,
organizations and individuals.
2. Acting against the law and the statute of the People's Public Security
Forces, and doing things which, according to law, must not be done by
cadres and public servants.

Possible responses to violations by officers may include being ‘disciplined,

administratively sanctioned or examined for penal liability; if causing damage to
health or life of other people, property or lawful interests of agencies,
organizations or individuals, they must pay compensations therefore according
to the provisions of law’ (National Assembly, 2014, Article 41.2).33

The Criminal Procedure Code (National Assembly, 2015b) outlines avenues for
citizen complaints against police as well as compliance oversight by state
prosecutors, but there are no independent bodies where complainants can seek
recourse. Responsibilities for oversight are also given to the Vietnam Fatherland
Front (VFF), the body encompassing mass member organisations of the Party
and a form of citizen supervision. The Law states their role is in both supporting
and supervising the activities of the police:

The Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member

organizations shall propagate and mobilize people of all

33
During a prosecution, officers ‘must not wear the public security signs, rank insignias and
badges when being prosecuted, held in custody or detention’ and if sentenced to imprisonment
‘they shall naturally be deprived of the public security signs, rank insignias and badges when
court judgments come into force’ (National Assembly, 2014, Article 41.3).
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 strata to participate in the All People Protect the National
Security movement, coordinate and collaborate with and
assist the People’s Public Security Forces in performing
their tasks and building the People’s Public Security Forces,
and supervising the implementation of the law on the
People’s Public Security. (National Assembly, 2014, Article
11.2)

Though this article attributes responsibilities for oversight, the VFF and its
subsidiaries do not have formal mechanisms for holding police to account.

In Vietnam, media reportage is controlled by the state. The 2018 World Press
Freedom Index ranked Vietnam 175th out of 180 countries (Reporters Without
Borders, 2018). The Ministry of Culture and Information controls the publication
of information, however, growing internet and social media usage has made
regulation of information by the state more difficult. Despite repression efforts,
poor police practices can be exposed online, which sometimes results in formal
disciplinary actions against officers or public apologies. The Government has
issued a raft of legislation instituting firewalls and has blocked services providers
and websites snot in accord with official policy or sentiment (Thayer, 2014).
Although certain freedoms are protected by law, they are undermined and
overruled by other legislation. For example, the Criminal Code (National
Assembly, 2015a, Article 167) stipulates it is a crime to infringe ‘upon freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, the right of access to information, and the right to
protest of citizens’ but these are limited by prohibitions on use of the internet as
detailed in a Government Decree on internet usage (2008, Article 6.1 (a)-(c)):

a. Opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

undermining national security and social order and safety;
destroying the all-people great unity bloc; spreading
propaganda on wars of aggression; sowing hatred and
conflict between nations, ethnic groups and religions;
spreading propaganda on and inciting violence, obscenity
and debauchery, crime social evils, superstition; and
destroying national fine customs and traditions;
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 b. Disclosing state secrets and military, security, economic,
foreign relation and other secrets as prescribed by law;

c. Spreading information that distorts, slanders and hurts

the prestige of organizations; the honor and dignity of
citizens;

In 2015, two young men were sentenced to six months jail for using Facebook to
spread ‘defamatory content and tarnishing the image of police’ in Hải Phòng, a
major city in Vietnam’s north (Voice of America, 2015). The post in question
advised people to avoid a police checkpoint, and was determined to have
contained the imputation that police were collecting bribes. In 2013, a news article
reported that police had drafted a regulation which sought to ban people,
journalists in particular, from photographing or filming on-duty police, especially
traffic police. It was reported that an agency within the Ministry of Justice had
reviewed the document and found it contained provisions contrary to existing law
(Tran, 2013). More recent reports, however, suggest that this type of legislation
is being reconsidered (Hoa, 2017). Such regulation would act to limit the ways in
which police in Vietnam might be held to account as well as, more broadly, place
constraints on necessary press freedoms essential for a scrutiny of power that is
open and transparent.

Despite its increasing economic prosperity, Vietnam’s human rights record

remains heavily criticised by observers, including Human Rights Watch (2014b)
and Amnesty International (2015). A report published by Human Rights Watch
(2014a) on police violence cited cases of injury to and death of people ‘during
arrest, questioning at police stations, and pretrial detention’ between 2010 and
2014. Transparency International (2013), an organisation that reports on
corruption globally, found that 72 per cent of survey respondents thought police
in Vietnam were either corrupt or extremely corrupt (the highest of any institution).
When asked if ‘ordinary people could make a difference in the fight against
corruption?’, 49 per cent of respondents ‘Agreed’ and 11 per cent ‘Strongly
Agreed’, while 28 per cent ‘Disagreed’ and 13 per cent ‘Strongly Disagreed’. The
Government acknowledges corruption as an ongoing issue with potential serious
consequences:
115
 Corruption is still taking place in a rampant, serious and
complicated fashion in multiple areas, especially in such
areas as administration and use of land, construction
investments, equitization of [state-owned enterprises],
management and use of state capital and assets, leading
to negative consequences in many ways, eroding the
confidence of the people in the Communist Party’s
leadership and the State’s management, giving rise to
potential conflicts of interest, social resistance and protest,
and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
Corruption has significantly hindered the success of [the]
Doi Moi [reform] process and the fighting force of the Party,
threatening the survival of the regime. (National Anti-
Corruption Strategy towards 2020, 2009)

In response, the Government has devised a national strategy which includes

passing new legislation, tightening audit procedures and increasing public
awareness (National Anti-Corruption Strategy towards 2020, 2009). Reported as
being the most corrupt institution in Vietnam (Transparency International, 2013)
while at the same time holding responsibility for prosecuting lawbreakers puts
police in a precarious position.

In January 2015, Vietnam joined the United Nations Human Rights Council for a
two-year term, and was urged to make improvements in a number of key areas
including: freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement,
eradication of the death penalty, treatment of prisoners, arbitrary detention and
the use of torture and violence by authorities. The revised Constitution (2013)
shifted provisions concerning human rights from Chapter 5 to Chapter 2 which
may be an indication the Government is taking human rights issues more
seriously. Though some human rights observers see the revised Constitution as
an improvement, it is criticised for being rhetorical and having limited impact in
practice (Human Rights Watch, 2014b) as many provisions granting specific
rights are subject to legislative constraints.

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Academia and police education

Vietnam follows the Confucian ethic of valuing education in that a degree should
be a requirement for people holding government positions. In 1484, the Emperor
Lê Thánh Tông paid tribute to the country’s early scholars by building the Temple
of Literature in central Hanoi where 116 steles of carved blue stone turtles were
erected bearing elaborate motifs to honour talent and encourage study. In 2012,
14 kilometres away from the original, a miniature Temple of Literature was built
at the PPA as a means to encourage a culture of learning and scientific education
– the first replica to be constructed on the grounds of a university (People's Police
Academy, 2017f). Vietnam inherited the Confucian examination system which
focused on a curriculum including ‘philosophy, literature, history and government’
(Taylor, 2013, p. 208). In order to sit civil service exams in the 15th century,
candidates had to undergo preliminary tests which included ‘an investigation into
one’s family history’ and ‘an evaluation of one’s moral character’ (Taylor, 2013,
p. 207). Despite the flux in Vietnam’s political history, an emphasis on the moral
character of not only individuals but also their family continues under the
Communist system. A family member’s criminal record can be justification for
refusing a person’s entry to the police occupation.

The People’s Police Academy

The People’s Police School was established in 1968 in Ba Vi district, Ha Tay

province (People's Police Academy, 2013b). Today, the police training institution
is the People’s Police Academy (PPA) (Học viện Cảnh sát Nhân dân), catering
to the northern provinces.34 The PPA is a registered university under the Ministry
of Education and Training and the main component for entry is through
competitive national examinations.35 Academy applicants are subject to the same
national examinations as for other universities, but must also ‘satisfy all the
criteria of political and ethical quality, educational level and health, and have

34
The People’s Police University (PPU) (Đại học Cảnh sát Nhân dân) is in Hồ Chí Minh City,
catering to the southern provinces. The PPA ranks higher that the PPU in terms of political and
regulatory status. The PPU was not the subject of study for this research. Graduates generally
work in the north if graduating from the PPA, or south if graduating from the PPU. Sometimes
police must undertake secondments away from their home for several years.
35
National education requirements demand the PPA must offer some compulsory subjects even
though they may not relate directly to police work.
117
aspirations and aptitudes suitable to public security work’ (National Assembly,
2014, Article 6.1). The PPA is increasingly trying to situate itself as one of the
country’s top ranked universities. Entry into police and public security universities
has become more difficult than for medical and economics degrees, requiring a
higher examination score. This is partly attributed to the fact police and public
security degrees are free and provide food and accommodation (Vu, 2017; also
see Chapter 6), and graduates are guaranteed a job in an environment where
many of their tertiary-qualified peers remain unemployed.

Students at the PPA study one of 14 major courses over four years 36 and
graduate with a bachelor’s degree (see Chapter 6). The tertiary model and
curriculum design mean police are both specialists and professionals, which has
implications for the way officers are allocated duties and promotional prospects
(as discussed in more detail in Chapter 7). In contrast to the PPA, ward or
commune police are usually vocationally trained at smaller decentralised police
colleges over two years.37 As bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral qualifications are
a prerequisite for promotion to some positions, education is an important
consideration for police seeking to move up the ranks (National Assembly, 2014,
Article 22.1).

36
Reduced from five years in 2016 following a restructure.
37
This study did not examine police colleges.
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Table 4 outlines the PPA’s major units, departments and functions, and indicates
the manner in which the university is structured according to political and union
committees, academic faculties, and logistics and administration.38

Table 5. Major units, departments and functions of the People’s Police Academy

Major units, departments and functions

1 Director board

2 Boards

- Board of Education
- Board of Science
- Complimentary and Disciplinary Board
- Promotion Board
- Cultural & Sport Board

3 Politic and social board

- Party Committee
- Youth Union
- Women Union
- Labour Union

4 Academic faculties and basic studies

- Political Theories
- Criminal Psychology
- Laws
- Foreign languages
- Martial Art & Military Training
- Basic Professional Studies
- Administrative Management on Social Order Safety
- Crime Scene Investigation
- Criminal Investigation for Hot Traces
- Anti-Economy Related Crime Investigation
- Anti-Drug Related Crime Investigation
- Criminal Investigation for Proceedings
- Traffic Police
- Prisoner Education & Rehabilitation
- Post-Graduate Training

5 Functional departments, centres and reviews

- Training Management
- Student Management
- Scientific Research Management
- Personnel Management
- Organization Movement Management

38
Table 4 details the PPA structure in 2013. There have since been changes including
additional academic streams and the establishment of in-service training centres. The response
to my request for an updated version was that further changes underway and made available
once finalised.
119
 - Administration Management
- Food Supply
- Material Supply
- Centre for Information, Library and Material Resources
- Centre for Vocational Trainings (Drivers & Guards)
- Review of Social Order Science and Education

Source: Organizational structure of the PPA (People's Police Academy, 2013b)

Police as academic and research leaders

As a university, staff at the PPA are engaged in research activities, and the
publishing of books and journal articles. Criminological research in Vietnam has
been shaped by the country’s unique history and carried out under the control of
the MPS. In 2017, the PPA celebrated the 10th anniversary of founding the Centre
for Criminology and Criminal Investigation Research referring to it as ‘one of the
leading scientific research units in the field’ in the country (People's Police
Academy, 2018a). Accessibility to research is often guarded due to ‘national
security’ and critical exploration of state responses to crime is limited to outsiders
(Cox, 2012). The research agenda of the PPA follows directions laid out by the
Central Police Party Committee (Decision N0.04 of Central Police Party
Committee, Programme No.306, Instruction No. 02 of the Minister of the Public
Security) (People's Police Academy, 2009). In 2017, Lieutenant-General Nguyễn
Xuân Yêm, Director of the PPA, published Protection of national security and
social order in the new context, a book which, as described in an official review,
‘applies the basic principles of Marxist-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s [t]hought and the
basic views of [the] Party and Government to analyze the practice of national
innovation and protection of national security and social order recently’ (People's
Police Academy, 2017a). The requirement for police to be Party members
necessarily means policing scholarship is a product of the political establishment.

Conclusion

In Vietnam, the context of policing has distinctive characteristics compared with

liberal Western democracies with long-term stable governance. Political stability
in Vietnam is a relatively recent phenomenon, achieved only in 1954 in the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and in 1975 in the unified Socialist Republic of
Vietnam. After the war ended in 1975, Vietnam suffered extreme poverty and in
120
the 1980s embarked on economic reform. It has since experienced rapid
economic growth which has implications for the nature of policing. Dominant
studies on policing in the global North have been undertaken under conditions of
regulated, developed economies which are supported by substantially stable and
predictable legal institutions. Consequently, the police have access to power over
others which is symbolic, political, economic and cultural. The way police (and
Party) pursue and maintain these positions requires an appreciation of the
country’s historical trajectory. In taking a Southern Policing perspective, we can
analyse the field as having marked differences in terms of its political system,
economic development, legal culture and police education.

In contrast to the establishment of Peel’s police in England, as a preventive and

deterrent force under stable governance, Vietnamese police emerged in 1945 as
part of the security forces which fought and won a protracted battle for
independence. The new government sought to maintain internal control by
punishing political opposition. A core task of police from the outset was targeting
political dissidents. Codes of ethics demand loyalty from police officers to the
VCP and the Criminal Code makes it an offence for anyone to oppose the state’s
administration. Individual police officers occupy positions in society as citizens,
as part of government (Ministry of Public Security), and as members of the
Vietnamese Communist Party. This departs from the apolitical stance
underpinning the notion of democratic policing studied in the UK and US and, as
Bayley (2006) points out, the right to freedom of association.

The legacy of the role of police in Vietnam’s independence is marked by national

days for commemoration and within the country’s museums. This emphasis on
the role of police in Vietnam’s battles has been gaining momentum over the past
15 years, engendering what Grossheim refers to as ‘commemorative fever’
(2018, p. 449), in a move that serves to further legitimise one-party rule. A
particular feature being celebrated is its socialist security apparatus with its links
to Soviet Chekism and the Russian Revolution (Grossheim, 2018, p. 439).
Vietnam’s distinct history, therefore, creates possibilities for different
presentational strategies or, as described by Manning (1978, p. 499),
‘dramaturgical potential’. The police and Party have control over that narrative

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through state-controlled media, and anyone seeking to publish or convey
viewpoints contrary to its official history can be punished. Though social media
provides many new avenues for disrupting media control, it also presents
opportunities for the Government to define new crimes to which police can
respond.

Police education and training in the UK have been criticised for being too short
and too legalistic, leaving recruits ill-prepared for the complexities of policing
(HMIC, 2002). By contrast, the bachelor’s degree for Vietnamese police,
combined with recruitment policies, means the Academy is a site for young
people’s foray into four years of university life. Efforts to improve the nature and
status of police education have led to revisions in the tertiary qualifications
awarded by the PPA. The Academy now delivers master’s and doctoral degrees
for police staff, lecturers and others seeking promotion at district, provincial and
national levels, providing police tertiary education with elements of both cultural
and economic forms of capital. The shorter, two-year period of college education
that lower-level police in Vietnam receive has been criticised for being
inadequate, especially given their frontline role (Human Rights Watch, 2014a) –
albeit, without effective oversight, more training may not produce the required
results.

The policing field in the global North has been impacted by the move towards
workplace diversity (for example, gender, ethnicity, age) as a means of increasing
accountability to and legitimacy with the communities they serve. This diverges
from the experience in Vietnam. In Vietnam, application to the police is largely
through post-high school national examinations as well as meeting criteria
regarding ‘correct’ political ethics, and, age, height and marital status. The quota
for female applicants acts as a ceiling due to the high number of applicants, thus,
limits gender diversity.39 This may be due to lack of cultural or legal recourse to
pursue litigation against discrimination, as well as a cultural emphasis placed on
harmony, which means the parameters for disputing official policies or being

39
This study did not set out to explore the recruitment or policing of ethnic minorities although
occasionally participants made brief references the issue, suggesting a sensitivity about the
topic.
122
confrontational are limited. The topic of gender in policing is discussed in more
detail in Chapter 8.

The field of policing in Vietnam has some distinct characteristics.40 The police
emerged amid political and military upheavals resulting in an overlap of bodies
responsible for national security. This is in stark contrast to, for example, the
London Metropolitan Police Force, whose founder Robert Peel deliberately
sought to distinguish from the army through distinct uniforms and (lack of visible)
weapons. The police continue to function under the dual subordination of the
MPS (police hierarchy) and the Party. Enduring insecurity has been described as
creating a sensibility among Vietnamese to the threat of foreign invasion (Gillen,
2011). The positioning of the police (and security forces more broadly) is,
therefore, an important source of capital for the legitimacy of the one-party state,
and is promoted to develop a ‘strong corporate identity’ (Grossheim, 2018, p.
439). The narrative of the police as depicted in the Hanoi Police Museum
emphasises their initial role as a political force, but the imagery then transforms
them to be more reflective of the public police seen elsewhere. Police identity is
underscored by a cultural appreciation for tertiary education in which the Police
Academy situates itself and competes with the country’s top universities. The
following chapter will explore some of the individual experiences police have with
becoming and working as a police officer.

40
It should be noted it has a long history of international influences from China and other parts
of Asia, the Soviet Union, France, and, in more recent times, Western countries.
123
Chapter 6: Learning to be a police officer

Introduction

The tall yellow painted buildings, set among an expansive and neatly paved
parade ground at Vietnam’s premier police training institution, appear suddenly
from behind the roofs of shopfronts lining the road. Through widely spaced bars
of a black metal gate,41 a statue of Hồ Chí Minh is clearly visible on the far side
of the parade ground. The golden coloured full-body statue of Vietnam’s first
President stands high upon a reddish pillar. Affectionately known as Uncle Hồ,
he is poised, his left arm by his side and his right raised in front of him, fingers
curled except the index finger which is pointed gently as if trying to convey an
important lesson to his audience. Indeed, his life and lessons are honoured in the
Academy’s Hồ Chí Minh Chamber, purported to hold over 600 documents
pertaining to ‘the great leader, hero of national liberation, [and] cultural celebrity
and about the leaders of the Party and State through the ages’ (People's Police
Academy, 2017f). Behind Hồ Chí Minh are similarly brassy busts of the unified
Vietnam’s four Ministers of Public Security. Not only are the statues a statement
on the direct link between the Vietnam Communist Party and the People’s Police
Force, they also serve as a reminder of the role of police in territorial integrity,
evidenced by the large banner inscribed with the words ‘Vì an ninh tổ quốc’ (‘For
national security’) draped behind the statues.

In this chapter, the Vietnamese police training and work environment which
construct one aspect of the ‘field’ are examined (Bourdieu, 1990a). The objective
field, which includes, for example, the distribution of resources and constraints
(capital) in the Academy and workplace, the training curriculum and the history of
the country and the police force, frames the social world for officers. The chapter
draws on interviews with police students and officers to explore the nature of
policing in Vietnam and the experiences of police at work or in training which
shapes their individual dispositions, or habitus (Chan, 1997; Chan et al., 2003).
The following sections detail that there are diverse views and experiences among
the police in Vietnam. This highlights that the relational dynamic – between the

41
The front gate to the People’s Police Academy was upgraded in 2017.
124
environment and an individual – can produce different experiences of the
socialisation processes in learning to be a police officer.

Edification and policing in Vietnam

Education in Vietnam has a symbolic status inherited from the Confucian

emphasis on an educated civil service as well as a social significance as a means
of escaping poverty. The police codes of conduct, particularly Uncle Hồ’s 6
Teachings and the 10 Disciplines (see Chapter 5), emphasise the importance of
continual self-improvement through study – a sentiment that is reflected in the
physical surroundings of the PPA. For example, as police students enter the
Academy library, they walk underneath a large red banner with yellow writing
reminding them to ‘Учиться, учиться и учиться … – Học, học nữa, học mãi …
V.I. Lenin’, (‘Study, study more, study forever …’). 42 The Russian script and
quotation from the socialist leader invoke the importance of education while
serving as a daily reminder of a historical and political ally. Lenin’s emphasis on
learning suggests a complementarity with Confucian edification in the form of
scholarly reverence. This reverence is literally cemented in Vietnam’s history
through the construction on campus of a mini replica of Hanoi’s historic Temple
of Literature.

The status of and value placed on education in Vietnam is a journey from temple
to tertiary institution. Its influences are located in both Vietnamese history and
culture and a history of foreign influence. Adjacent to Lenin’s quotation is another
recently erected sign, this one in English: ‘Innovation in police education and
training for a safer and more secure Vietnam’. Taken together, the Russian and
English signage is unapologetic about deriving its inspiration from foreign
sources. Even though they require translation for many of the students, the signs
indicate a symbolic link to socialism and a pragmatic relationship to English
language, most likely due to its current global dominance. The signs indicate a
deeper current central to Vietnamese culture: the importance of a tertiary

42
Lenin’s quote is often translated as ‘learn’ rather than ‘study’. “Về chuyện học, Chủ tịch Hồ
Chí Minh có câu nói rất hay: "Học ở trường, học ở sách vở, học lẫn nhau và học ở nhân dân",
có thể dịch là "Learn in school, learn from the books, learn from each other and learn from the
people".”
http://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/giao-duc/hoc-tieng-anh/phan-biet-learn-va-study-3586904.html
125
education. This belief is instilled in young people and across social class for
pragmatic reasons. As one male police student put it: ‘My mother told me to study
hard to get into university otherwise I would end up poor and, on the street, selling
lemons’.

Joining the police: from patriots to pragmatists?

By design of the police regulations, new recruits in Vietnam are young, unmarried
and usually recent male high school graduates. It is expected they enter this
phase of adult life with optimism towards their chosen career. In interviews for
this thesis, a string of police students repeated the common refrain: that they
joined the police because it was their ‘dream’ since childhood. This was not a
surprise finding. In some cases, the interviewees reported their dream was
spurred by memories of their parents donning the green police uniform. In others,
they were inspired to sign up by having watched locally produced television
dramas that represented police as crime-fighters protecting social order and
national security. Reinforcing these ideals, new recruits are treated to a stage
spectacle by current students about the “Ước mơ màu xanh” (green dream) of
joining the security forces (People's Police Academy, 2017h). The heroic and
noble characteristics associated with being a police officer were also reflected in
the colloquial referent siêu nhân xanh (green superman):

It was my dream. In fact, I know a lot of women who work

in the police. I thought police were superwoman/superman
and I thought when I grow up to become a police officer it
would be my dream come true. The second reason, I
always find that police help a lot of people in the world and
it is meaningful for people. The third reason, maybe
because a lot of people in my family, my parents, my father,
are police too. I want to follow my father. As a child, I always
saw my father in uniform. He worked really hard to help
everybody. In the police district, he always went out and
came home late but that is his duty. He wants peace for
everybody. I had a good impression. (Police officer, female)

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Some students and officers were more explicit in describing the role of police in
Vietnam’s independence and attributed high status to policing as a result of this
legacy. In addition, policing was described as essential for enabling Vietnam’s
prosperity by enforcing laws against economic crimes post đổi mới (economic
renovation) to facilitate business growth and to protect environmental
degradation through unauthorised development.

There is an honour and pride to be police not only because

my parents guided me [to become police]. It was my dream
from when I was a child because police are very important
in protecting national security as well as social order. It
makes me proud. Not to mention in Vietnam, the police are
very prestigious … As you know, in the period of war in
Vietnam with America and the French, the police force was
established when Vietnam declared independence. They
[the police] served a lot in the work of the revolution against
America and France.… At that time, when we received the
peace treaty, the role of police was more indispensable
than ever … After the peace treaty was signed the newborn
government of Vietnam had a lot to do, protecting the
country and social order was a high priority. Of course, the
law and administration in Vietnam had many problems and
there were many political criminals and so police had to
create a stable life, so the people can live happily and
develop their living standards and gain prosperity. The
basic role [of the police] is the same now because the main
role is protecting national security and social order. In times
of globalisation it is much stricter, and we have to learn to
do better to learn the new world order to serve the people.
(Police student, male)

Responses of this kind reflect the general sense from interviewees about what
the police could and should do in theory. They indicate a naiveté and a belief in

127
an idealised policing and are not reflective of the challenges police confront in
practice.

Cultural expectations relating to behaving correctly, especially towards elders

(Ơn), are indicative of an inclination to increase others’ comfort, to fulfil others’
aspirations, to lighten others’ burden of work and worry (Jamieson, 1993).
Consequently, aspirations for joining the police to ‘protect national security and
public order’ and to ‘fight crime’ were considered alongside (sometimes
supplanted by) the desire to please the family.

The police job in Vietnam is quite good, you can earn a

higher salary than other jobs. When people become police,
they have been trained a lot, they’re confident and they
have the ability to deal with life. Many parents want their
children to become police to become confident. Parents ask
their children to become students at the PPA, it means the
students have to try hard. Parents use this to motivate and
encourage their children to study hard. (Police officer,
female)

One student admitted he applied for the People’s Police Academy (PPA) because
it is the only ‘university’ where tuition is free, and a small stipend is paid. By
attending the PPA he could relieve the financial burden of his tertiary education
from his family. Given that most police students are accepted to the Academy
based on their high school exam score, their pathway to recruitment requires
diligence and planning due to the competitive entry. This diverges from
recruitment processes in some jurisdictions, for example, in South Africa some
officers described their police career as ‘accidental and unplanned’ (Faull, 2017,
p. 333). Students also mentioned parental preference for them to join the police
on the basis the Academy would provide a disciplined environment for learning,
which would hold them in good stead for the challenges of adulthood. Women
were more represented in administrative academic streams. This was frequently
self-identified as personal choice with interviewees often expressly anticipating
the necessity for flexible hours afforded by office work for their future reproductive
and family obligations. It was clear however that gender constraints were also in
128
play, as women identified being deliberately allocated into administrative streams
against their personal preferences. Only one female interviewee talked about
joining the Academy in opposition to her father’s stated belief that becoming a
police officer was an unsuitable job for women.

One student said some people described policing as their ‘dream’ job because it
was the response expected by the Academy. This was confirmed by a senior
officer. It is clear there were a myriad of, often more pragmatic, reasons for joining
the police. My attempts to explore these reasons more deeply was largely
unsuccessful. For example, a student said her family, who had a business
background, wanted her to join the police because ‘they don’t have a police officer
in the family so maybe they thought they need one’ (Police student, female).
When asked in what way having a police officer in the family would ‘help their
business’, the student declined to answer, possibly anticipating my inquiry
regarding a conflict of interest. A male student said he was attracted to the
‘exploration, the danger and thrill’ of police work, although when prompted to
elaborate, he chose not to explain, as if it was a taboo subject. This attitude is
quite different from those of police in other countries, where ‘action’ and
‘hedonism’ have been well documented as an attractive part of policing (Reiner,
2010).

Policing in Vietnam covers a broad range of administrative and other roles often
undertaken by civilians in other jurisdictions. This meant some students joined
with no intention to work operationally. One student said he was ‘really good at
maths and wanted to do a job in [forensic] science’ (Police student, male).
Another student was concerned about the extent of pollution in Vietnam and so
joined the police with a specific intention to study the environmental crimes
investigations major, so he could make a contribution to improving the state of
the environment.43 This type of specialisation at the outset of training is not a
universally common feature of police education under the Anglo-American model.

43
He noted that environmental crimes could include: violations of food security, smuggling and
trafficking of rare animals, deforestation and illegal chemical usage.

129
Despite some obfuscation (mainly by students) this study found that another
reason for joining the police in Vietnam was its status as a ‘hot’ occupation.
According to several senior officers, getting into the force was in high demand
because police are among the highest paid workers in the government sector.44
Policing was seen as ‘hot’ also because of its longevity and stability. Despite the
private sector showing strong growth and increasing opportunity, working in
business was viewed by some as unstable. Perceptions of job instability and of
having to work harder than in the public service contributed to the idea of policing
as a sensible choice. An officer put it this way: ‘Policing is “hot” because with it
you get power, privilege, benefits, stable job and good money’ (Police officer,
male). Another officer described a lack of commitment among junior officers in
the following way:

New police recruits don’t care about an oath to protect the

people. They join because they know they will have a stable
job with a good salary. They have no commitment to the
people. But the government says that they will “look after”
new police and give them good benefits. The parents
encourage their children to join the police too because they
will have good connections. (Police officer, male)

The Bachelor of Policing

The PPA transitioned to a credit system to be in line with ‘advanced’ international

university practice (People's Police Academy, 2015c). 45 An undergraduate
program comprises two streams to make up a total 149 credits: general (42
credits) and professional subjects (107 credits). General subjects include political
theory on Marxism-Leninism, Hồ Chí Minh ideology, and history and doctrine of
the Vietnamese Communist Party. Students are required to do subjects in the
social sciences and humanities including scientific research methodology and to

44
In terms of official salary and access to other incomes.
45
Specifically, the Academy website referred to: ‘Credit-based training system is an advanced
training mode that has been deployed and applied in many countries all over the world, such as:
United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, Germany, Thailand,
Philippines and so on.’

130
produce a minor thesis. Elementary English and computer skills are compulsory
alongside physical education, swimming, firearms, driving, drill and martial arts.
Students must pass the general education subjects, including political
education46 and soft skills,47 to graduate (People's Police Academy, 2017b). The
following sections will examine more closely the general and professional
curriculum.

The ‘General’ police curriculum: Learning morality

Many of the offices I visited at the PPA were adorned with statements printed in
yellow lettering against a red background in gold-coloured frames. The ‘5 Oaths
of the Vietnamese People’s Police Force’ are displayed prominently around the
Academy as guidance for expected behaviour of the ‘cadres’. The principal tenet
of the 5 Oaths is that of loyalty: loyalty to the country, the people, the Party, the
State, and to the ‘struggle and sacrifice’ in the pursuit of these ends. Loyalty to
the police and to the Party, and following instructions, were described by students
and staff as crucial to being a ‘good’ police officer.

Police students frequently mentioned the importance of ‘morality’ in terms of what

they learned at the Academy and how they should behave as police officers. The
compulsory subjects on Hồ Chí Minh ideology and the VCP taught students about
what constituted moral conduct. Students recounted a number of important points
from these lessons, including: ‘We must obey the regulation of the Ministry of
Public Security and have a good relationship with our comrades and local
communities’ (Police student, female); ‘By studying [those subjects] we learn not
to oppose the regime of Vietnam. Secondly, studying at the PPA and means we
follow certain disciplines and it keeps us in line’ (Police student, female); and ‘Hồ
Chí Minh teaches compassion and humanity … the way of living, the

46
According to the PPA website, students must have ‘a stable political background, clear ethics,
strictly implementing the regulations of People's Police and law of the State. After graduating,
students are members of the Communist Party of Vietnam or have been granted certificates of
training in the Party's knowledge and certificates equivalent to intermediate level of political
theory.’
47
See Appendix 1 for the standards for soft skills.

131
characteristic of people in a Socialist Republic and of a soldier in particular’
(Police student, female).48

Morality was described as something that could be taught and learned through
knowledge and discipline, and through the creation of ‘habits’ over years of
training (Police student, female). The study of Hồ Chí Minh and Party policies is
designed to cultivate in police a higher level of morality than that of the general
community:

Theoretically, maybe the majority of police have better

morality than average citizens. Practically, this cannot be
compared between police and [the] normal citizen because
each group of people has good and bad people. In the
police, people have the chance to train and improve their
morality more than the people outside. For normal citizens,
they don’t have to follow the rules of the police. But it is not
absolute, so police probably have higher morality. (Police
student, female)

However, what constitutes correct morality is not so straightforward as following

set guidelines. When asked if following official rules was an indicator of good
morality, one student responded:

Abiding to the rules of government in the police force is just

one part of good personal morality. It is not following the
rules. It is not good to strictly follow the rules. And some
rules need to be adjusted or amended to better suit the
situation. Following rules and regulations is unnecessary.
We must be flexible. (Police student, female)

Police officers do not always rely on written codes or regulations to determine

their actions. They learn through a process of socialisation which rules must be
followed, which rules may be followed depending on the situation, and which rules

48
Police and soldiers are both regarded as public security officers. The use of the term ‘soldier’
in this context may reflect the nature of policing in Vietnam as being more closely aligned with
the military than in other jurisdictions.
132
are optional or even detrimental if followed. Therefore, what is deemed ‘moral’
according to the principles of the general curriculum (including ethical codes)
provides a framework for the use of discretion.

Though guidelines for conduct and ethical behaviour for police are common, the
Vietnamese version of moral order reflects Wong’s (2012, p. 61) description
whereby culture refers to both a ‘high culture’ associated with Confucian
principles and as a way of doing things is invoked with respect to police culture,
as something that can be cultivated and developed though continuous learning
and reflection. The process of developing or aspiring towards a version of high
culture may be a form of socialisation. Thus ‘oaths’ and ‘disciplines’ can be
sources of inspiration for correct morality rather than prescriptions in order to
shape individual behaviours and dispositions. Nonetheless, a code of conduct,
where conduct typically refers to actions, may indicate a Western analytical
framing in so far as conduct of the kind familiar to a Western understanding refers
to actions, whereas policing in a post-Confucian society may be regulated more
by feelings and cultural processes as per Wong’s (2012) suggestion in the
Chinese context. In other words, police morality in Vietnam may be more akin to
a feeling and a process than to a Western way of thinking and judgement as
described in the Western police literature (Crank, 1998). (This is further discussed
below in the section ‘Constructing a police culture’.)

The ‘Professional’ police curriculum: Specialist subjects

Once applicants have been assessed, met the entrance criteria, and selected to
study at the Academy, they are asked to nominate a preferred study major (up to
three preferences). The Academy, however, will ultimately determine the stream
to which a student is allocated depending on gaps and workforce needs. The
Academy provides a degree in policing based on a curriculum, unavailable at
other universities, which is designed to equip students with specialist skills and
knowledge and to meet the specific requirements of the policing profession.49 To
pass, students must score a minimum of 2.7 out of 4 in at least two thirds of their

49
The PPA recently commenced a degree course for people to work more closely in criminal
justice administration and the procuracy. Students must pay a fee for their degree (unlike other
police students) and are not guaranteed employment after graduation.
133
specialist subjects (People's Police Academy, 2017b). The evolving policing
environment means that new majors are added as needed, for example, high-
tech crime investigation is a recent addition given changing crime trends. Below
is a list of the major streams which were available in 2017.

Table 6. Major specialisations at the People’s Police Academy50

Major specialisations
1.1 State Management on Social Order and Safety
1.2 Criminal Police
1.3 Investigative Police

1.4 Economic Police

1.5 Forensic Science

1.6 Traffic Police on Roads and Rails

1.7 Police on Criminal Sentence Enforcement and Judicial Assistance

1.8 Police on Narcotic Crime Prevention and Suppression

1.9 Armed Police

1.10 Student of English for Police

1.11 Environmental Police
1.12 Police on Hi – tech Crime Prevention and Suppression
1.13 Police on Criminal Procedures Code
1.14 Police on Water Ways
1.15 Students of Chinese for Police
1.16 Police Advisory and Commander
Source: People’s Police Academy (2017b).

One national director of a police department remarked that, although students

graduated from the PPA with a bachelor’s degree with a specialisation/major, the
status of being a ‘professional’ in policing was not conferred until an officer had
undergone practical training in the field and had experience in investigating
cases. As one male police officer put it: ‘The word “professional” is hard to define’.
And many responses tended to focus on similar themes of Communist Party

50
See Appendix 2 for more details on each specialisation.
134
loyalty and obeying instructions. For one female Police student, professional
meant:

Being loyal to the Communist Party, [and] the people; being all
ready to do anything when the Communist Party calls you to do
it and the Ministry of Public Security asks you to do it…. [I’m]
really happy and proud to work under their way and instructions.

In accordance with the Academy’s stated ethic of continuous learning, graduates

should be capable of carrying out scientific research and continue on to further
levels of education (People's Police Academy, n.d., p. 17).

Homestay and internships as part of police curriculum

Along with the specialised syllabus, compulsory drill marching and martial arts,
the Police Academy curriculum includes general programs to improve ‘soft skills’
designed to build confidence, public speaking ability and public relations aptitude
among the newly enrolled. One such program, undertaken in Year 1 of training,
is a one-month homestay with a family to help students develop skills for
cultivating close relationships with the community. The students report back on
their experience to their class, reflecting on how they built trust with their hosts
by familiarising themselves with their needs and preferences. A student
recounted his homestay experience in a north central coast region:

This internship is to learn how to get along with the people.

I stay with them, I work with them, I eat with them…. I have
to know about the customs of that place. I see what the
people do and what not to do…. They asked about my
schedule in the PPA. Do I have to get up early for exercise?
What is the standard of living in PPA? They ask me about
rules and regulations of PPA. I ask them about their
standard of living, their work life, about their family, their
children. At the end of the internship, they considered me
as part of their family. I keep in touch with them now. At Tet
[Lunar New Year], I call them to wish them a happy new

135
 year. When I finished my internship, they hugged me, and
they cried. (Police student, male)

The positive reaction described above is likely a reflection that homestay hosts
are already sympathetic towards the police. Investment in the residential program
is evidence that forming close relationships with the community is regarded as a
key police capability. An explicit benefit of cultivating this familiarity was its
contribution to police reliance on the community for information – a concept not
unique to Vietnam, although the ways to achieving better police-community
relations are varied. For example, a week-long homestay is not a feature of
Anglo-American training methods despite efforts to improve community
engagement.

One student noted that, during the homestay, he changed his usual sleeping and
eating routines to fit in with the family’s schedule because it was important to
adapt to please his hosts. Whilst these adjustments could be chalked up to simple
politeness, the ability to modify behaviour to ensure a harmonious relationship
with others, in this case unfamiliar hosts, is a characteristic nurtured through the
police curriculum and expected to be transferrable after graduation. It also relates
back to the collectivist cultural beliefs which impact on the ways policing in
Vietnam is understood.

The students are required to undertake two further internships at police stations
for their bachelor’s degree. These occur in Year 3 (three months) and Year 4 (four
months) and are an opportunity for students to apply their class-based knowledge
in practice. These internships provided useful points of discussion for exploring
students’ operational experience, as presented in the next chapter.

Post-graduate police education

To be promoted to supervisory or management roles, police in Vietnam require

post-graduate qualifications. In 2015, the Academy reported it had on staff seven
professors, 24 associate professors, 133 people with doctoral qualifications and
358 people with master’s degrees (People's Police Academy, 2015b). In 2018,
the Academy held a ceremony for 39 new PhDs and 380 master’s police officer

136
graduates bringing the total number of graduates since 1992 to more than 4000
(People's Police Academy, 2018b).51

Since there is a strong emphasis on the importance of tertiary education in

Vietnam, and postgraduate education for police promotion, several police
participants questioned further education as a means to an end. They felt that the
quality of, and commitment to, learning was in potential conflict with the desire to
get the certificate of qualification, which is tied to prospects for promotion and
salary. Several police officers referred to ‘achievement disease’ as a
phenomenon in Vietnam. This was a derogatory way to describe pursuing a
master’s or PhD qualification to have on your CV rather than to improve your
knowledge or skills. Gaining a qualification as a ‘means to an end’ has been
reported in police forces elsewhere (Atkinson, 2013). However, the unique
context in Vietnam gives rise to some specific manifestations, including the
possibility of getting a subordinate to write and submit a thesis in their superior’s
name, or examiners might be paid bribes to pass sub-standard work. The
resulting qualification enables someone to be promoted, despite having not
acquired the learning or knowledge. It should be noted that interviewees and
publicly available information indicate this has been a problem with the education
sector as a whole in Vietnam and not unique to police. In 2017, the Ministry of
Education and Training made it compulsory for newly enrolled PhD and master’s
candidates to publish their research in English language peer-reviewed journals
to demonstrate their English proficiency with a view to improving academic
practice and international engagement.

Socialisation

Socialisation is the process by which a newcomer learns to fit in with their new
environment (Chan et al., 2003; Van Maanen, 1973). Police are socialised
through the way they are trained, their experiences doing police work, and their
interactions with others (Reith, 1956). The environment includes the objective
‘field’, for example, the surroundings in which they study or work, and, the

51
Figure includes police officers from Cambodia and Laos who are engaged in exchange
programs.
137
interactions students and officers have both with their environment and each
other.

Police institutions use artefacts and symbols in presentational strategies to

construct the learning environment which shapes occupational identity. On the
grounds of the Academy, adjacent to the library, is the imposing blue and white
fuselage of a Vietnam Airlines plane which is an aide-mémoire to both the state-
owned aviator and modern technological advancement. The plane is flanked by
a temple on one side and a traditional stilt house on the other. The plane and
house serve as reminders that police work is about the practicality of emergency
response and investigation. Their deliberate placement in the Academy is to
create a space for scenario training. The plane represents modern technology
while the house reminds us of ethnic minorities and hilltribes. There are other
ways organisations build, create and mould police identity. The following sections
describe how the police deliberately construct the environment for their officers.

Constructing a police culture

At the Academy, the statue of Hồ Chí Minh is symbolic of the direct relationship
between the Communist victory and the police. Adjacent to the statue is a space
dedicated to Vietnam’s current territorial claims in the East Sea, particularly the
Spratly and Paracel islands. The islands are the centre of a dispute with other
nations in the region but primarily China who has claimed the territory and their
rich oil and gas deposits as their own. The dedication sends the message that
Vietnam’s long-time territorial disputes with China continue. The space has a map
of Vietnam positioned slightly above ground level with the concrete to the right
side painted blue to mark out the East Sea. Corresponding miniature islands have
small glass boxes attached containing sand, rock and coral from those sites to
bring them into the grounds of the PPA to remind students of their ‘role in national
defense’ (People's Police Academy, 2017f). Whilst police draw on the legacy of
winning independence, the deliberate (and recent, 2011) construction of the East
Sea map on Academy grounds indicates that contemporary national security,
indeed territorial, concerns are positioned at the forefront of police identity and
contribute to fostering a sense of enduring insecurity, as noted by Gillen (2011).

138
Police are also socialised into the organisational culture through specific activities
and by encouraging particular sentiments at the Police Academy. One method is
the use of contests. The Academy regularly holds, or participates in, intra- and
inter-university contests. For example, in 2018, a team of police students
competed (and won) a contest involving other public security institutions. The
competition comprised four parts relating to: ‘Pride of the police officer, the
knowledgeable police officer, the quick-witted police officer, and the talented
police officer’ (People's Police Academy, 2018c). The Academy website reported
the ‘competition was an important political activity to raise awareness and make
positive changes in the actions of police officers in studying and implementing Six
things taught by Uncle Ho’ (People's Police Academy, 2018c). The emphasis on
contests and group activities serves several purposes. As a senior police officer
explained, they help to develop ‘soft skills’ and build confidence so that officers
are better equipped to communicate with others and be role models in the
community.

Contests provide a means by which to assess otherwise intangible aspects of

police culture and a method for socialising individuals into what is deemed an
appropriate disposition. For example, though morality is valued as a core
characteristic of a ‘good’ police officer in Vietnam, it remains extremely difficult to
measure. Even if morality is characterised as a sentiment, something to strive for,
an active and continuous process pursued as a personal journey based more on
52
‘feeling’ than ‘thinking’, measuring it remains difficult unless these
characteristics can be exhibited outwardly. Contests enable the measurement of
the more tangible, outwardly-directed signs of morality, such as loyalty and
solidarity, partly by observing participation and other externalised markers of
these characteristics.

The ‘small society’ of the Academy

The way the field and habitus for police articulate with each other to socialise
police officers can be demonstrated through a reference several officers used

52
Wong (2012, p. 61) refers to ‘obstacles in understanding Chinese policing’ and that Western
intellectual preference towards rationality (how to reason) can limit understanding sentimentality
(what one feels) more aligned with oriental thinkers, including Confucius.
139
regarding the ‘small society’ of the People’s Police Academy. First impressions
of the Academy in Hanoi might lead one to think it is a rigid paramilitary
organisation where rules and orders are strictly enforced, robustly followed and
consequences enacted. The parade ground is paved in a sandy coloured stone
criss-crossed with thick lines of deep red, similar to the pillar upholding Hồ Chí
Minh’s statue. Despite the area being vacant, it is easy to conjure images of it
filled with police officers marching in formation with discipline and precision.
Perhaps only people who have tried to coordinate such complex and precise
movements can truly appreciate the difficulty involved. In addition to physical
conformity new police need to fit into their new environment through being
accepted by peers and superiors. Officers referred to the Police Academy as a
‘small society’ where people should be vigilant and avoid conflict in order to
maintain good relations with other police. Police students referred to becoming
more ‘mature’, ‘responsible’, learning to ‘avoid conflicts’ in social relationships,
and having a deeper understanding of society and politics as a result of their
training. Indeed, the Academy is a dynamic place of learning where adjustments
are made to one’s behaviour through exposure to the environment and peers.
One student described how to self-monitor in order to fit in:

The PPA is like a small society. Everything you do there is

closely watched and acknowledged by others, including
teachers and cadets. Therefore, “managing your life
around” in the PPA requires certain vigilance. That's,
maybe, how you become more mature in PPA. Not all PPA
students can become more mature after four years of
training. If they are carefree and choose to live their college
life not thinking about other affairs. Other universities,
however, do unofficially teach students how to be more
mature. But, you see, not many universities make all of their
students live together in the campus … About relationships
with others, if a student is not clever in building up
relationships, he would make more “enemies” than
“friends”. I cannot explain it clearly. But avoid conflict with
others is a priority to police students. For myself, “Think
140
 more, talk less” is a key word. Talk means saying or giving
your points of view on affairs, things that happen around
you. There are things you should keep for yourself, not for
“announcing in public”. (Police student, male)

With respect to what thoughts should not be made public, a student said the
following: ‘The first thing you are taught when you arrive at the Academy is to
never say anything bad about the Party or the Police’ (Police student, male).
Another student explained the consequences of saying something ‘bad’, citing an
example from a few years prior where a student who criticised the quality of
training was subsequently expelled. Life in the Academy as a kind of microcosm
of society was also a theme raised by some participants:

To me, the PPA can be considered as “a small society”

when there are so many people with various different
characters as well as social relationships that I have to face
up and handle for four years. Thanks to that, I became more
self-confident and experienced for dealing with professional
work and relationships with other people. For example,
friends, teachers and so on. It is the reason that I say I
become more mature due to the training at the PPA. (Police
student, male)

The police environment is great to train in, makes me more

mature and to equips me with firm stuff … I’m careful about
what I talk about and what I do. (Police officer, male)

One student indicated that the length of exposure to police culture affects the way
they act:

Maybe if you talk to first or second-year students they might

be more open but third, fourth or fifth-year students will be
very closed. They have just been around longer and know
not to say anything that could be critical. (Police student,
male)

141
Though students in this study were not critical of their training, some indicated
there were subjects that were ‘boring’. It’s worth noting this is not atypical for
university students across the globe and it is difficult to quantify the importance
of new students finding some subjects dull. What is significant is that this may
indicate the limits on what is considered appropriate feedback to avoid the
possibility of unfavourable consequences.

The police academy requires students to live onsite. Adjusting to residing on

campus amongst other students and staff at the PPA was a source of anxiety for
some. The importance of ‘fitting in’ was a key theme for newcomers who were
nervous about starting new relationships with room-mates and making new
friends. One student said she had shared dorm rooms with 10 and 16 others
respectively but, feeling uncomfortable, moved off-campus to share a room with
only four others (Police student, female).

Fitting into the Academy or the police organisation more broadly could be
facilitated by having relatives in the occupation who could provide advice and
guidance to meet training requirements as well as connections to advance
through the ranks. A female student said her father helped her practice martial
arts because she found it difficult. A male officer said he applied for a position
and justified his suitability to the interviewers due to having a relative in a nearby
department. He was unsuccessful, but his story is indicative of the perceived
potential benefits associated with significant relatives, networks and patronage.

Family influences were a strong consideration for people joining the police. The
move from living with family into the Police Academy traded one living
environment for another – the small society of the Academy, with its close living
quarters and dorm-style living. Obligations to family, and the potential
consequences of not fulfilling them (namely, exclusion), mean police in Vietnam
are possibly less isolated than their Western counterparts. Rituals for ancestor
worship are traditionally conducted by the male head of a household which
explains why a preference for sons remain strong as they are seen as important
in linking generations past and present.

142
 In Europe or other countries, there is less connection with
the family, for example, in Singapore, elderly parents live in
a home for elderly people. In Vietnam, parents want to live
with their children. Or sometimes, the parents want to live
separately but the children won’t have it. They live in the
same house. (Police officer, female)

Alumni, appreciation money and financial ‘socialisation’

The Police Academy hosts monuments and ‘cultural spaces’ to create a physical
environment shaping police identity. In some cases, projects are sponsored by
alumni from a specific graduate cohort, 53 for example, the replica Temple of
Literature, Ethnic Costume Showroom, and Hồ Chí Minh Chamber were
supported with funds from courses D2 (1976–1981), D3 (1977–1982) and Lao
Cai Provincial Police, and D4 (1978–1983) respectively (People's Police
Academy, 2017f). Gift-giving practices and reciprocity can manifest in different
cultures in different ways. I made the following observations during fieldwork
which describes some of the ways gift giving is practiced among police in
Vietnam.

A red carpet welcomed the delegation of Ministry of Public Security officials to the
graduation of class D37 in May 2016. After five years of academic study, 54
marching practice and martial arts, almost 700 students were receiving their
certificate for a Bachelor of Policing. The ceremony began with a performance on
stage by students dancing, or perhaps marching, to the song ‘We are Vietnamese
Police’:55

53
Sometimes jointly with other police units. For details refer to the Facilities webpage of the
PPA (People's Police Academy, 2017f).
54
The last cohort before the implementation of the four-year curriculum commenced the
following academic year.
55
Chúng tôi là người chiến sĩ công an Việt Nam
Giữ thanh bình yên vui cuộc sống.
Chúng tôi là người chiến sĩ công an Việt Nam
Là con em của Tổ quốc yêu thương.
Đường tôi đi qua bao xóm, bao làng
Đường tôi đi qua bao núi, bao rừng
Đường tôi đi vượt bao gian khó.
Tổ quốc yêu mến ơi, một niềm tin với chúng tôi
Có chúng tôi giữ yên cuộc sống, có chúng tôi giữ yên đất trời.
143
 We are Vietnamese police

Keep peace serenity happy life.

We are a Vietnamese police officer

The children of the country of love.

I go through the neighbourhood, the village

I go through the mountains, the forest

My road goes beyond hard times.

Dear Fatherland, a faith with us

Yes, we keep our lives, there we are.

The performance was followed by speeches from officials, a student and a parent.
The speech by the father of one newly-minted police officers was accompanied
by the presentation of a novelty oversized cheque, the type used in presentations
to make visible the process of a financial transaction that otherwise takes place
with a few strokes on a computer keyboard. The cheque was made out for
VND60,000.00 (approximately US$3000) and presented to the Deputy Director
of the PPA. The gesture piqued my interest as I am accustomed to the practice
of money transferring from institutions to students through scholarships or
bursaries in recognition of hard work. A police officer explained to me the
donation was raised from students and their families to thank the Academy for
educating and looking after the students over the training period (students must
live on campus and are generally only allowed to leave every second weekend
to visit family). Furthermore, it was described as an example of ‘socialisation’ (xã
hội hóa) – a deliberate government strategy to encourage citizens, in this case
police, to contribute to the financial well-being of public institutions. 56 To that
extent, donations from police officers were seen to be acts of ‘appreciation’
towards the Academy for educating them and preparing them for police work.

56
Salemink (2013, p. 182) also referred to ‘socialisation’ (xã hội hóa) and attributed its practice
to changes in the national economy and the withdrawal of state funding from some services,
‘meaning that people themselves have to pay for the services they need’.
144
The officer explained also that the recent opening of the café – called Café Sách
(Book Coffee) – in the library building was partially funded by way of a call-out to
police officers (former students) for donations. Interestingly, he explained that ‘the
more successful a police officer has become, the more they were expected to
donate’ to the Academy in ‘appreciation’. Though the Academy might fundraise
in this way for specific projects, such as the cafe, seeking donations from past
students was a method regularly employed to bolster its finances. The Academy
regards money raised by fundraising as a donation. Implied in the concept of
donation is that the donor gives by choice, uncoerced, and of their own free will.
‘Donations’ at the PPA are recorded and, therefore, not anonymous. One officer
said that, although it was not compulsory to donate to the Academy, the fact that
it is known who has donated is an incentive to give – especially if the officer has
to attend in-service training in future or pursue post-graduate qualifications. ‘A
person might feel uncomfortable returning to the Academy for training if they
haven’t donated to the Academy’, said one officer.

Then there is the question of how much money should be gifted or donated.
Several police staff said there is no fixed amount but there is frequently a
correlation between position and amount: the higher the position of the gift
recipient, the higher the amount; or the higher the income of the giver, the greater
the amount. One police officer said people were obliged to participate in the giving
and receiving of ‘appreciation’ money because it was expected within
Vietnamese culture.

Pursuing a police career

Implications of the ‘Professional’ curriculum and police sub-cultures

The fact the police are trained as specialists rather than generalists has several
implications. In a practical sense, some students expressed concern that, firstly,
they may not be accepted into their preferred major, thus having to study for four
years in an area that holds less interest for them; and, secondly, there is no
guarantee that after graduating they will be allocated a job in the specific function
they were trained in. For example, a person who studies Traffic Policing may be
allocated a role in Administration. Though they may later transfer to the traffic
145
police, their immediate post may not be in the area they had hoped. Graduates
may also have a preferred location for where they want to work as well as their
role. Some students hoped to be transferred back to their home province to be
close to family, whereas others wanted to stay in Hanoi because it afforded more
career opportunities and the urban lifestyle suited them better. Thus, although
graduates were guaranteed employment, their preferred position and location of
work were less predictable.

Given the breadth of specialisations, graduates may be allocated to various

positions in the MPS. They may work at ward, district or provincial levels, in
administration, policy or logistics offices, and in prisons or forensic institutes. At
ward police stations, Academy graduates work alongside police educated at the
subordinate Police College but are viewed as having higher status and can hold
supervisory positions. 57 Some people who did not initially pass the entrance
exam for the Academy may be accepted by the Police College. After graduating
from the Police College (two years) and working for two to three years, a person
can earn bonus points to be accepted by the Academy. These students undertake
a shorter, three-year course, in recognition of prior learning, to graduate with the
bachelor’s degree and be eligible to work at higher positions.

When I was at high school my studying results and ability

were not quite good, so I was not sure about choosing a
major at university. My mother and father encouraged me
to send in an application form for the PPA but I only …
passed the test for Police College … There are two main
differences between the College and Academy. Firstly, is
about education. The program and curriculum. The
knowledge cadets have to absorb at the Police College is
more basic than the PPA and the subjects are fewer than
the Academy. Secondly, the facilities. Obviously the PPA
can offer a wider range of facilities and provide better
facilities to study. Regarding the basicness of curriculum,

57
Police College graduates also have a specialised curriculum, though not as in-depth as the
Academy.
146
 when I was at the Police College we only have a number of
credits according to each subject but at that time no
emphasis on self-study or self-research and not taught from
the officers. So, our knowledge is kind of limited. Only two
years spent at Police College. When at the Police College,
students only graduate from high school. After graduation
we do three years out working so it is easier for me now to
learn to be more professional at the Academy. (Police
student, female)

The ‘professional’ curriculum, therefore, has implications for the way police work
is structured and the impact this has on police culture or, indeed, sub-cultures.
Upon entering the Academy, police students know they will study a different
curriculum to those with a different major. They also know upon graduation that
their position could be quite different to those of their peers. This differs from the
established models in the global North where recruits study the same generalist
modules and are assigned the role of general duties constable as their first
exposure to police work, albeit differences in locations, community demographics
and workplace cultures may present individuals with different experiences. 58
Some features which may foster different police cultures include the
administrative level at which officers work, the nature of their role and contact
with the community, and status attributed to tactics, characteristics, official
position and social hierarchies. These are addressed in more detail below.

Ward and district level police

Police who graduate from the Academy in the same major can have different
operational experiences depending on whether they are assigned to work at the
ward or district level. The ward police have more direct interaction with the public
and a lower jurisdiction for decision-making. For example, the role of ward police
was described as:

58
In line with other studies, there are likely differences between policing urban and rural areas.
Participants in this study mostly had operational experience in urban areas so a useful
distinction cannot be made. However, Chapter 7 does include some commentary regarding
policing remote communities.
147
 The main work of ward police is dealing with receiving
information about cases and emergencies first-hand. And
reporting to the higher level, particularly the head of the
District level to be told what to do with this case. Second,
going on patrol and protecting social order and people
where they work. Thirdly, co-operating with the district
police in cases of arresting criminals or (people) involved in
peace-breaching acts. (Police student, female)

An officer who recently graduated from the PPA and was deployed to a ward
police station (where most officers are trained in a Police College) said: ‘I didn’t
realise how much we had to work together and depend on each other’ (Police
officer, male). Thus, the bifurcated (Academy–College) education system must
prepare officers to work alongside others with different training backgrounds.

As well as responding to emergencies, cultivating close relationships with the

local community was emphasised as a core task of ward-level police, particularly
in relation to passing on information to residents and eliciting information from
them about various relevant concerns.

Police officers go to each family to know more about their

needs and understand more about problems with each
area. Get information on the characteristics of each
neighbourhood … each person has an individual police
officer to call. (Police officer, female)

It is about convincing people, building propaganda59 about

the harmfulness of criminals and for them to co-operate with
the police to catch offenders. (Police officer, male)

Police spread propaganda about laws and spread

information. We don’t make the law. (Police student, male)

59
Police frequently used the term ‘propaganda’ to describe an aspect of their work, although
one interpreter explained to me this referred to spreading information and educating people and
that he was aware an English translation may have negative connotations.
148
Although the ward police work at the lowest administrative level and many officers
are less qualified (thus unable to be promoted without further study), they can be
important mediators between the community and other police departments and
Party officials. Subsequently, ward police are important gatekeepers and
decision-makers who can determine which community concerns are elevated to
higher levels and can correspond to forms of cultural and economic capital.60

The nature of community contact

Though police who graduate from the Academy can work at either the ward or
district level, their specific role will shape the nature of their interaction with the
community. For example, police can work at the ward level as Criminal Police or
Social Order Police (among others, e.g. Economic Police). Police with operational
experience in both specialisations were interviewed in this study. One officer
described the different policing approaches associated with these functions:

Each police specialty has a different relationship with the

community. Maybe the Criminal Police have conflict with
the people who have illegal behaviour. The Social Order
Police will provide information to the Criminal and
Investigation Police. The Social Order Police will explain the
law to the community. The Criminal Police focus on
behaviour that is illegal. For example, in the Criminal Code,
there are crimes for preparing to commit criminal behaviour,
for example, like buying a knife and a gun. That’s the
behaviour we are looking for. Prevention is a priority
compared to investigation. It is the job of the Criminal Police
and the undercover police to prevent criminal behaviour. All
of the officials have to do that, the undercover police do that,
also the Social Order Police have to do that. (Police officer,
male)

60
See Koh (2001) ‘Negotiating the Socialist State in Vietnam through Local Administrators: The
Case of Karaoke Shops’ for more detail on ward police as gatekeepers who can facilitate
evasion of prosecution for illegal activities.
149
I asked the officer to explain what he meant about the role of the undercover
police in crime prevention. He responded:

[Undercover police] do social prevention. It means they co-

operate with other organisations and people to deliver
propaganda, to help the people to understand the law, for
example, the Department of Education and the media.
There are two types of undercover police. First, for social
prevention as above with propaganda. Secondly,
prevention by using tactics which focus on people who
could become criminals in future. The undercover police
use professional tactics to investigate these cases.

When I asked the officer how police determine who might become criminals in
future in order to target with undercover tactics, his response was: ‘Sorry. That is
a matter of national security’. The types of behaviours or attitudes exhibited by
these officers likely have implications for how they are perceived and the nature
of their relationship with the community.

Status accorded to subject

During interviews with police students and officers, it became clear that there was
a hierarchy among the major subjects which attributed some with a higher status
than others. Whilst some justifications for higher status accord with what is often
regarded as ‘real’ police work, for example, the crime fighting and crime detection
aspects of policing, there were also some variations. Some police said Economic
Police and Traffic Police pathways were highly desirable. Economic policing was
described as attractive because police were able to liaise with businesses and
external agencies which made the work interesting. In both cases, possibilities
for extra remuneration through increased exposure to the public in circumstances
which may result in economic benefits (informal payments, bribery) were
mentioned as possibilities for their desirability. One officer said the two most
popular specialisations were the Criminal Police and the administration police
(State Management and Social Order Police). The latter may seem anomalous.
The Criminal Police is associated with crime-fighting and almost entirely male-

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dominated, whereas the administration police are viewed as more suitable for
women (though given the gender quota women are still a minority). So, why is
Social Order considered a highly attractive role? One possibility is that
administration police is responsible for the management of the household
registration system which can provide economic opportunities through informal
payments for processing residents’ documentation necessary for accessing
social services.

The specialised curriculum reflects the way police work is structured. For
example, the following quote describes how the delineation between catching
and interrogating a suspect works in practice:

The Criminal Police capture the criminals, but the

Investigation Police talk to them. In other countries, it is one
job but here it is two jobs. An advantage of this is that
people do their jobs quite well, for example, the Criminal
Police don’t have to think about paperwork and process,
they just focus on catching the criminal. The disadvantage
is that sometimes they don’t have good co-operation
between divisions, they don’t work well with other police.
The Investigation Police didn’t witness the crime and
capture the criminal and so it makes the procedures
between them time consuming. If two people were one, it
could be simpler. They’re trying to co-operate better. (Police
student, male)

It is worth noting there is a trend towards specialist interrogators in some foreign

jurisdictions.

Gender

Decisions regarding how prospective police students were allocated to

specialisations are highly gendered. One senior officer (male) indicated there
were four out of 13 specialisations suitable for women including: State
Management and Social Order and Safety (1.1); Forensic Science (1.5); Traffic
Police (1.6); and, Criminal Sentence Enforcement and Judicial Assistance (1.7).
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He qualified this categorisation by further noting that only certain roles within
these specialist functions were suitable for women. For example, women in
Traffic Police were most suited to vehicle registration and management or ‘traffic
safety propaganda’, i.e., office work. Notwithstanding, there are some efforts to
increase the number of women doing operational traffic duties (see Chapter 8 for
further discussion of gender).

Age

Because Criminal Police were seen as prestigious because they were involved
in crime-fighting and arresting criminals, i.e., ‘real’ police work, the physical nature
of this work appeared to make it more desirable for younger officers. Investigation
Police, who are responsible for interrogation of suspects, were more likely to be
older and were more difficult for me to access for this study. Although police
students can study to be Criminal or Investigation police, the process by which a
suspect is caught by the Criminal Police and handed to the Investigation Police
meant the latter were more likely to be more experienced and mentors to the
former. A male police student said it was often desirable for graduates of Criminal
Police, after gaining some experience, to transfer to the Investigation Police.
Although there are distinct differences, this process resembles the progression
from patrol officer to detective described in policing scholarship in the UK and
US. The differential status associated with Investigation and Criminal police
officers was described in the following way:

The relationship is like supervisor and student, or partners

with a very strong bond. Respect is paid from the younger
officers to the older ones. Everything the Investigation
Police says should be followed. Sometimes the
Investigation Police have to teach the young Criminal Police
a lot and it takes time to teach and they teach them well.
(Police student, male)

The specialisation of police training requires co-operation between functional

roles, however, some functions can have higher status for different reasons. In
relation to the Investigation Police, experience was associated with age and this

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reinforces a general cultural deference to elders. Respect for elders, and the high
regard and status given to educators and teachers in Vietnam, also manifested
in certain classroom dynamics between officers and students in the Academy:

In Vietnam, from Confucian teachings, the teacher always

knows best and is always right. So, the student can’t
question the teacher about something they said. Also, if the
teacher is wrong or doesn’t know the answer, they will be
very embarrassed because in our culture the teacher is
supposed to know everything. They can’t say, ‘I don’t know’.
Students are also mindful not to embarrass the teacher with
a difficult question. (Police officer, male)

A female police officer said that to be a teacher and a police officer was something
to be proud of as both held special status in Vietnam.

Everyone in society respects the police. We respect them

(the people). They respect us. I’m careful about my actions
and behaviour as a police officer. In Vietnamese culture, the
most powerful jobs are police and teachers. When you go
out on the road and you say you are a teacher everyone
looks up to you. (Police officer, female)

Another officer commented on the style of teaching in the Academy, comparing

it with methods observed while undertaking a master’s degree in conjunction with
the University of Maryland in the United States:

The teacher [from Maryland] requires us to prepare before

the lesson and contribute to group discussion. It is very hard
because you really have to concentrate and think. It gives
me a headache and makes me tired. It is very different to
how we teach in the Academy. Here, the teachers usually
just talk, and you don’t have to worry about being asked a
question. I think it is good to have discussion, but it is hard
because we are not used to that method. (Police officer)

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These comments reflect a culture where knowledge is conveyed from teacher to
student, from older to younger people, and where hierarchy is valued and
authority unquestioned.

Organisational and social hierarchy

In light of the police hierarchy, and the cultural deference to elders, a premium is
placed on an individual’s ability to maintain or promote harmony in relation to the
community, one’s peers and supervisors, and as a leader. Consequences for
transgressing social norms perceived as being critical or disrespectful to a senior
could affect one’s reputation and chances for promotion, and subsequently affect
higher pay and status. According to a police officer among the eldest in this study,
possibilities for injecting new ideas into policing remain limited due to what are
deemed age-appropriate actions and responses.

As people get older they become more conservative and

think no-one can question them. Even a young person who
knows they are right can’t question a senior person. It could
cause them problems and get criticism and affect their
promotion. (Police officer, male)

One of the drawbacks to respecting hierarchy in this way is that socialisation

leads to established authority going unchallenged, placing limits on capability and
adaptability. Junior police are told not to talk about things they don’t know about.
For example, if a regulation does not make sense to a person, the most likely
explanation, in this worldview is, that they probably don’t have enough information
to understand. The junior police person should just follow the regulation because
due diligence would have already been done by senior officers. This construct
discourages any questioning of authority. It heightens the perception that senior
officers are highly capable and that subordinates need to accept that they are
inferior. Subordinates simply don’t know enough to understand the situation fully
and should therefore just do as they’re told (Paraphrased from fieldnotes, 2016).

Deciding not to directly question or confront somebody with a concern could also
be a sign of respect and not wanting to diminish a person’s perception of their
own capabilities or status. A police officer said:
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 Our culture is very indirect. We try to be polite. We don’t
want anyone to feel bad. But it can be unproductive. It
means that sometimes something needs to be done but we
don’t want to upset anyone, so we don’t say things, or we
say to them indirectly and conversations go around and
around, and it takes a long time for some things to get done.
If there is a problem, we don’t want to blame one person. It
is about saving face of the other person. We want to be
respectful to them and not make them feel bad. (Police
officer, male)

One interviewee said that it was difficult to question a supervisor even if the
supervisor was clearly wrong. He said if people didn’t like their boss, they would
not usually tell them or confront them directly, though neither would they go out
of their way to help them, and might passively withhold support, so the boss’s
underperformance would be noticed and get them moved or rotated elsewhere.
This somewhat passive form of resistance has been identified by others as a
general cultural characteristic (Kerkvliet, 2005) which appears to be found also in
the police force. Some police indicated they would speak up if a colleague or
supervisor was not doing what they thought was right, for example:

If doing an investigation, a boss told me to do something

against the law, I would point out the law to him and say if
you want to go against the law that’s fine, but you must say
that it is your decision. Otherwise, mostly, I would obey
instructions, even if I thought it was not a good idea. I think
most police will just do as they’re told … Many bosses are
not competent because they get promoted due to their
relationships and not their ability, so sometimes they don’t
know their job. But we have to follow them. Our culture is to
do as told. Follow instructions. (Police officer, male)

Police must obey their superiors, but if in doing so they break the law, they
contravene Article 30 of the Law on People’s Public Security Forces (2014) which

155
prohibits them from acting against or not abiding by State laws and statutes. This
places officers in a precarious position.

When asked if they had witnessed misconduct by a colleague, several students

and officers indicated they did not want to answer the question. This suggests
that the issue is contentious and possibly divisive. What is interesting is that one
student who responded did so using a hypothetical example.

My choice for this is that I would speak to that police officer

in a personal private conversation. I would confront them
and ask if they have a good reason. Then I will sympathise
with him and let things go. But if his reaction is bad when I
ask about it or hesitating or his reason is bad I will mention
this in the next meeting of the station … I would have
nothing to be worried about when I talk to them in person or
in the meeting because I know that I can make a
comfortable way to satisfy both that person and me and
happily correct it and that police officer will not treat me
unfairly in the future. (Police student, male)

There were those who felt comfortable to talk about challenging others
behaviours and though dissent was unusual, there were cultural supports for
those who chose to speak up. A different male student said he had seen a senior
colleague detain a suspect using too much force, so he confronted the officer
later and ‘suggested some other methods to arrest or deal with the suspect which
were much more softly’. He said he did not report the matter to anyone else and
when asked if he was concerned about confronting his colleague about the
matter, he responded: ‘No. We think we are brothers, so it doesn’t make me
nervous’. The student described his intervention as making a ‘suggestion’, which
could be a strategy for mitigating potential fallout from a more strenuous critique.
A senior officer explained that police do not have to worry about raising a concern
about the conduct of another officer if they were doing so from a position of
righteousness. He referred to the idiom, ‘Cây ngay không sợ chết đứng’ (‘The
tree is not afraid to die standing’), explaining to me that in this context it meant an
officer who reports a colleague’s bad behaviour or misconduct has nothing to fear
156
because they are doing the right thing. In sum, though there was a range of
strategies to deal with a peer’s wrongdoing, the most common response among
police was to speak in private to the officer concerned to give them an opportunity
to justify their actions.

Diversity and inclusion: gender, ethnic minorities and LGBTI communities

The concepts of diversity and inclusion as a way for the police to be reflective of
the community are documented in studies on policing in Western countries (A.
McLeod & Herrington, 2017; Prenzler, Fleming, & King, 2010). Though relations
between ethnic minorities and the government have been complex, the police
recognise the importance of having ethnic minority officers policing their own
communities and recruitment policies reflected some differential criteria to
facilitate their employment.61 There were no such strategies to recruit people from
sexual and gender minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex,
LGBTI). Although the Constitution (2013) has provisions against discrimination,
Vietnam lacks specific legal protections for LGBTI communities.62 In an interview
with a female student, I explained the concept of diversity in police employment
in Western countries and asked whether it was an appropriate strategy for the
police legitimacy in Vietnam. She responded:

There is a difference in culture. In Vietnam, the government

does not recognise gay people, also the police don’t
recognise gay people. Further related to ethnic [minority]
groups, the PPA and MPS [Ministry of Public Security] give
a high priority to ethnic [minority] groups to study with the
police. In terms of women, they can’t work in the frontline,
but they can work in the office [and] foreigners can’t join due
to the political system. [For legitimacy] I think the first thing
is that the police should have a good appearance and be

61
Ethnic minority applicants can be 2 cm shorter and weigh 2 kg less than the standard criteria
(Bộ Công An, 2016, Article 6.2(d))
62
Article 5.2. All ethnicities are equal, unified and respect and assist one another for mutual
development; all acts of national discrimination and division are strictly forbidden.
Article 16.2. No one shall be discriminated against based on his or her political, civic, economic,
cultural or social life.
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 good inside. The police need good behaviour and polite
behaviour. (Police student, female)

Although reporting of sexual harassment and assault is low in the community

because it may upset patriarchal power structures, their occurrence inside the
police – a male-dominated organisation – was difficult to assess. Several male
and female staff and students were asked about sexual harassment or assault in
the People’s Police Force. Three of the four people asked about this issue denied
that it ever happened in the police and appeared genuinely surprised at the
prospect, even when I mentioned it was not uncommon in police forces around
the world. However, it became apparent in one interview that what constituted
‘sexual harassment or assault’ was unclear. A senior female officer initially
thought only an incident of rape or where a serious physical injury occurred
constituted a problem. Subsequently, a more nuanced line of questioning in a
following interview elicited a different response where the female student
indicated sexual jokes by men were commonplace. She said:

In my department in some situations we have a tea break,

some men try to joke with us about sex and we feel upset
and say, “Don’t do that”, and give them feedback….
Sometimes they comment relating to a part of my body “so
sexy, so beautiful”…. I feel uncomfortable…. Sometimes
I’m so busy so I ignore it because it occurs almost every
day. It occurs in the Police College, the PPA and in the
District where I worked. (Police student, female)

The student denied being reluctant to complain due to fear of repercussions

affecting her future career path. The #MeToo movement has opened
conversations about sexual harassment in Vietnam. Gender expert Dr Khuất Thu
Hồng, from the Institute for Social Development Studies, Hanoi, indicates sexual
harassment is often considered within the realm of ‘normal’ behaviour towards
women (Khuất, 2004; Taft, 2018). Dr Khuất Thu Hồng also suggests that
acknowledging a wider problem of sexual harassment could be seen as a failure
of the state, given sexual harassment was rarely publicly discussed prior to
embarking on đổi mới (economic renovation) (Taft, 2018). In this sense, women
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are expected to bear the burden of ill-treatment to protect the veneer of social
harmony.

Promotions

Policing in Vietnam is generally a lifetime career. One male student said: ‘Most
police will never know any other job – unless they do something like a serious
violation and they will be charged and sent to court’. However, with proposed
major budget cuts, including the PPA student intake being almost halved to 370
for 2017-2018 and associated reductions in staffing (People's Police Academy,
2017c), occupational stability may be challenged in future. Policing was
previously a domain for the poor to access tertiary education, although it was
indicated to me by a police officer that increasing competitiveness may mean the
selection of new recruits would be weighted towards those who have networks
and can contribute and reciprocate benefits to insiders.

Police can be considered for promotion after serving sufficient time at each rank,
but there is scope for early promotion for high performers. For example, the Law
on People’s Public Security Forces (National Assembly, 2014) Article 2c states:

[For people] who record particularly outstanding

achievements in crime prevention and fighting and
professional activities, may be considered for a skip in
ranks; if they record particularly outstanding achievements
in work, scientific research or study, they may be
considered for ahead-of-time rank promotion.

Even though police are trained in a specialised manner, they can transfer laterally
and learn another field on the job and through in-service training. It was not clear
in this research how easy this process is to navigate although the appreciation
for specialists (and associated capital) over generalists appeared to have limited
scope for mobility across functions. One officer said policy on job security (a
person may hold one position for 30 years) limited staff turnover and rotation, and
may be hindering fresh ideas from coming into the workplace. I asked the officer
about whether the police had policies regarding forced rotation – an oft-used anti-
corruption measure in some international jurisdictions to prevent or disrupt
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unhealthy collegial relationships in high-risk units. He said, although people can
be transferred or demoted due to poor performance, there were no policies that
required a fixed period of service to facilitate change. Indeed, he said that this
would be inappropriate for the Vietnamese system and that policing approaches
overseas cannot necessarily be transferred to Vietnam. Specifically, he
proposed: ‘In my opinion, only about 40 per cent of foreign knowledge can apply
here’ (Police officer, male).

Some police expressed concern about people being promoted based not on their
ability but on their relationships with influential people, although one officer was
quick to qualify his statement as not necessarily pertaining to Vietnam:

I don’t know. [laughs] In some cases it is maybe related to

relationships. Hard to describe. Maybe. I’m not sure about
that. Actually, I think it is similar in any police force in the
world because we are all people. We are not mechanical. I
think we may control it in some efficient way. If we can’t
control some problems relating to the relationships between
staff and leaders it could be negative, and it could make the
police force suffer from corruption…. I don’t mean that it is
in the police force in Vietnam, I mean it is in all forces in the
world. It is the same as that. (Police officer, male)

Police could also improve their promotional prospects by being ‘active’. 63 A

female officer described ‘active’ in the following way: ‘Active means willing to do
anything. Being active is a main feature to get a higher position by building a good
reputation. If someone wants to get a higher position, they must be responsible
and be able to solve problems, they are willing to show up in difficult situations’.
A senior police officer commented that the ways police can be recruited and
promoted might be undermined:

Relationships are very important, the most important thing

in the police. For example, a rich police officer can take out

63
‘Active’ can mean ‘năng động’, as in being energetic or invigorated. Or it can also be used
pejoratively, ‘chạy chọt’, relating to using a ‘backdoor’ or receiving benefits through connections.
160
 others for dinner and build relationships which will help him
get promoted. A policeman who is poorer can’t do that and
so even though he is smarter than the rich guy, he will not
get promoted because he can’t build the relationships. This
is very sad about the police. It means we are not promoting
the best people. I worry about the future of the police
because it may be that, more and more, only the rich police
with connections get promoted rather than people with
more ability. (Paraphrased from fieldnotes, 2016)

A survey of public officials found that 17–19 per cent reported that having
powerful connections helped secure a job or promotion, while 13–16 per cent
said family/friends connections were helpful (World Bank, 2012, p. 73). In this
study, an officer commented on the importance of family connections in a
workplace:

It is common sense in Vietnam to have family and relatives

to work in the same workplace so it’s better for a candidate
and so it is easier to get support and guidance from a
superior who is a relative. It is not convincing for staying [in
one office], but it can create better co-operation between
divisions. I know it’s not like this in other countries. (Police
student, male)

The reference to it being ‘common sense’ for family and relatives to work together
(particularly in a large organisation) also reflects the weight applied to the
perceived benefits of group cohesiveness and stability in social relations, rather
than selecting people who might be more qualified but present an uncertain
cultural fit.

Performance management

One police supervisor from an administrative unit in the Academy was frustrated
that some of his colleagues and staff were unproductive, leaving him to take up
the slack. I asked how he, as a supervisor, addressed this lack of productivity as
well as what mechanisms were in place for periodic performance review. He said
161
there was no structured approach to give feedback to subordinates in the form of
an annual review, for example. The only way to address the work output was to
speak to the person privately on an as-needed basis, though this was generally
avoided as much as possible. One concern was that the supervisor was not
involved in staff selection processes and that, because it was a sought-after office
to work in, people may have been appointed based on their social networks rather
than on merit. As a result, the supervisor was reluctant to have discussions
regarding performance management with any of his staff because if somebody
felt aggrieved, regardless of how appropriate or constructive the feedback, they
may complain to their ‘contact’ who could block any promotional aspirations of
the supervisor in future. In contrast, having connections within the organisation
or work unit may have beneficial effects on work performance:

We have to think very carefully before we do anything

because we must think of other people’s, for example, our
relative’s images. Sometimes people think that they can do
anything if their relative is a manager of somewhere, he will
think of himself more freely and not always do the right
thing. (Police student, male)

We choose to talk in private and in person with someone

who is not doing their job right. After that if things don’t
change they might bring it to a public meeting. It depends
on the temper of the boss. Also, it can be hard to tell
someone they aren’t doing a good job because they might
be related to someone higher up and it might come back
poorly on you. (Police student, male)

After five years study in the university they have their own
lifestyle and go to work in the police station and have many
experiences. In Vietnam, they have no experience except
from high school. When they make a simple mistake, their
manager will tell them how to do it, they will get a warning.
After two or three warnings they will have to report to the

162
 manager. They will only be reported for serious mistakes.
(Police officer, female)

Overall, there is a complex interplay between managing relationships, work

experience and individual personalities which influences a person’s motivations
at work.

Asking superiors advice as positive interaction

Going from the Academy to a police station was described as nerve-wracking

and exciting. A female described her experience and how she approached fitting
in:

When I was a junior officer I was new to everyone. What I

did was getting as much conversation with other officers in
order to know them more and introduce myself. When we
are working together it brings us closer together and
strengthen our bonds. That is how we fit in with the team.
In Vietnam, most senior police are very open in terms of
work and junior police often do not hesitate to ask a senior
officer what to do. The role of senior police is to create an
environment for the junior to prove what they can do and
then if the junior works well, if they see your potential they
will be more open. (Police student, female)

An experienced officer said that when students come to do their internship at the
station they are considered like a ‘brother’ and that it seemed colleagues also felt
good about the arrival of junior officers (Police officer, female). A junior officer
talked about her experience at a police station as being positive:

My boss and the senior officers really cared about the

students and especially the females. Even with much work
to do with the criminals and complicated things we do
together. The police were really friendly. It was a good
experience. (Police student, female)

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I explained to a male student that a tendency in Australian policing was for junior
officers to ‘keep their mouth shut’ and not ask too many questions of senior
officers so as not to annoy them, and asked him whether it was similar in Vietnam.
He seemed surprised at this notion and responded that it was normal to ask
experienced officers questions and that he had not felt uncomfortable in doing so
during his internship. Though this may indicate a difference in the way new
officers are included in the workplace in Vietnam, the broader cultural tendency
to respect elders and defer to authority may mean junior officers are careful to
ask questions in a way that is not perceived as disrespectful or a challenge to
authority. Rather, it shows agency and being active in building relationships.

Party membership

Police are required to be Party members. As there are benefits to membership of

career advancement, police as Party representatives are expected to be good
role models and to strictly follow Government regulations. This can limit some
personal choices outside of work, for example, restrictions on the number of
children (contravention may result in a fine or limiting promotional prospects),
who one can marry, and restrictions on travelling abroad. An officer reflected:

When I joined the police almost 20 years ago, it was very

hard to get into the Party. But now, they require everyone
to join. I think that there are fewer people who want to join
the Party and so now they need more people to be
accepted. Being a Party member has benefits but also there
is less freedom. You have to follow all regulations. (Police
officer, male)

A younger officer explained his view on justifications for the regulations:

Mainly because of the need to keep policemen following the

government and the Party. They need to devote everything.
For example, a spouse who is a foreigner might clash and
change [the officer’s] mind about the government and Party.
Christianity is linked to Western ideas. Police can’t travel
abroad because the Government are afraid the police will
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 have contact with the idea of multiple [political] parties and
come to have a change of heart and then the police will not
devote completely to the Government and Party in Vietnam.
Ideally, you have to devote fully but even if you can’t really
devote you still have to follow [the ideology and
regulations]. (Police student, male)

There may appear to be a contradiction between the fact lecturers can go to the
United States to study at the University of Maryland and the Party’s concern with
outside interference. There are many examples where Vietnam is trying to
balance or strategically use ‘foreign’ ideas or technology where they are politically
useful. Some of these are explored in more depth in the next chapter.

Conclusion

This chapter has described aspects that shape both the field and habitus for
police in Vietnam. It reveals that, despite some similarities, there are distinct
differences in the policing field compared with the dominant discourse of policing
in the global North. Notable differences include the connection between policing
and politics, and the status of tertiary education among police. Additionally, the
structure and content of police education (and post-education deployment)
facilitates hierarchies and sub-cultures pertaining to different police functions.
The fact that students commence their training knowing that they will study a
specific major, may also mean that sub-cultures are initiated and entrenched
earlier than in police organisations where generalised training is undertaken by
all recruits. These differences mean that the capital associated with certain
aspects of policing and police culture differs for symbolic, social and economic
reasons. The component of training which included a month-long homestay also
marks a difference from police training in the global North. The broader societal
appreciation of tertiary study means it is accepted or indeed expected that police
should have a degree qualification. This contrasts to some Western countries
where the question about whether police should be degree qualified is debated
(as is the question of who pays for it).

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There are also differences in how the concept of ‘culture’ is constructed which is
relevant to our understanding of police culture. Academy activities for the
purposes of socialising students into the organisation, such as contests, provide
an opportunity for students (and staff) to practice and express loyalty and
solidarity. These activities, along with formal instruction on ideology, are designed
to cultivate in police a notion of higher moral purpose as well as to afford a means
to assess their external characteristics and expressions. That police should aim
to develop a higher level of morality than that of the general community has been
reported in the Chinese context (Jiao, 2001). This attribution can be sourced to
an ideology that ‘emphasizes the interpersonal integrity of cultivated individuals’,
as suggested by Martin (2014, p. 475) in his description of a ‘policing by virtue’
model in Taiwan (and East Asia more broadly). The emphasis on cultivating
morality as something to be learned and experienced, rather than an application
of ‘logic’ (Wong, 2012, p. 61), may explain the tendency towards the requirements
for tertiary civil service (and police) education which differentiates some East and
Southeast Asian approaches from Anglo-American.

Western police might also view themselves as inhabiting a higher moral ground.
This position is routinely conceptualised as a justification for certain behaviours
and as delineation between good and evil. Claims to higher standards of morality
are reflected in comments in this study where police are described as having
higher standards of morality than the general public and where distinctions are
made between us and them. Participants in the study were, however, consistently
able to hold multiple ideas around morality, acknowledging that there are good
and bad people in the police and in the community. Though global North and
Vietnamese police forces may each claim moral superiority, the paradox remains
that, where Vietnam might be considered a collective society, morality is an
internalised pursuit. In contrast, Western police ‘high-mindedness’ was a
judgement about one’s moral position in relation to others (Crank, 1998).

The research shows there are hierarchies between, for example, police functions
(e.g. Criminal and Investigation Police) or roles (e.g. lecturers and students),
which were subsequently accorded different characteristics or status. This
resembled research from other countries regarding the existence of police sub-

166
cultures because there are different positions in policing which shape the field
and habitus for officers differently, for example, management cop versus street
cop (Reuss-Ianni & Ianni, 1983) or detective work (Ericson, 1981; Hobbs, 1988;
Young, 1991). In spite of different political systems, there are also parallels with
new recruits in other countries and how they try to fit in with their new environment
in different studies.

However, in analysing the data regarding how officers described specific roles,
especially roles they were not doing themselves, there were notable differences
from the international studies. Police officers were rarely, even when pressed,
critical of other officers or the organisation. This was a marked difference
especially in regard to the study by Reuss-Ianni and Ianni (1983) where officers
openly expressed an antagonistic relationship between patrol officers and
supervisors. Granted, there may be methodological explanations and concerns
regarding confidentiality and possible consequences to such openness, and
there were instances of critique; however, there is an overriding cultural tendency
in Vietnam (Kerkvliet, 2005; Lucius, 2009), and in policing as a subset of society,
that values harmony over being critical of others which is different to individualist
cultures. Stability in professional relationships was valued over disruption which
was also reflected in justifications for patronage. These examples highlight the
importance of understanding the wider political and social context in which police
operate and the determinants of value in police culture.

Crafting an organisational identity for police has roots in a historical sense and is
constituted in the present by those who are given entrée to the occupational
domain. Recruitment and selection practices are important because they speak
to what attributes and characteristics are valued by an organisation. Learning to
become a police officer at the Academy is influenced by both history and current
politics. We see socialist links, as exemplified in Lenin’s quote about striving to
learn, while at the same time a greater engagement with developed countries,
including former foes such as the United States. Foreign engagement has
positive and negative capital. There is a tension in engaging with (some)
foreigners due to attendant limitations. For example, as stated, police cannot
travel overseas without Party approval (for work or leisure) and cannot marry a

167
foreigner or a Christian for fear of infiltration or weakening loyalty to the country
vis-à-vis the Party. The attractiveness of policing as a career depends on a trade-
off with other factors, including remuneration, compared with alternative, less
dangerous occupations in the given economic environment and perceived status
of police.

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Chapter 7: Bamboo, boundaries and benevolence: police
culture, norms and practices in transition

Introduction

Around the streets of Hanoi, police presence is marked by the numerous ward
police stations (công an phường), painted the colour of pale daffodils, dotted
amongst narrow shopfronts. Stations are branded with large red and yellow
signage, a red lightbox with the police logo, even a letterbox bolted to the façade
for receiving anonymous complaints. Some police stations have an enclosed
front workroom where the officer on desk duties benefits from air-conditioning
amidst steamy weather, but many do not. Street-facing front offices are typically
rooms with wide-open frontage giving the impression of public accessibility to the
nation’s police force, if only to their lowest rung. These open spaces are a visual
marker, the lax security indicative of what is to be understood by outsiders as a
low risk of serious confrontation. The other notable feature is the large, dark
timber desk. It sits mid-office, clear of any technology or hardware, allowing full
view of the occupant perched behind it in sartorial green and red epaulettes with
gold trim. Around midday, as the day hits full heat, it is not uncommon to see
people sleeping; they lie slung across a row of chairs at the entrance. Sometimes
those napping are wearing police uniforms.

The informality and simplicity of ward police stations provide a particular picture
of Vietnamese policing. It would, however, be unwise to draw from this picture
more extensive conclusions about the inner workings of the nation’s police force.
Understanding the complexity of Vietnamese police means looking deeper into
what it means to be a police officer in a force often accused of abusing its power
and criticised for lacking accountability.

This chapter investigates a range of ways officers perceive their function in

society and what influences the ways they go about their work. My investigation
examines the relationship between the police and the community, most
significantly how police discretion may both improve or damage their
relationships with the community. It explores how police balance their local
relationships with their accountability to superiors and the system. Maintaining

169
this balance requires considerable finesse but it is a critical strategy used across
Vietnam to ensure minimal disruption to organisational and social harmony, and
political stability. Why is the role of police so important to maintaining harmony
and stability? When the police function includes navigating political systems that
punish dissent, the way police operate at the lower levels is an important arena
for state-society relations.

Social order and local policing

Though the formation of a public police force in Vietnam is relatively recent, the
functions of policing in terms of regulating social order have existed since pre-
modern times. Sovereign power was exercised by monarchs who oversaw land-
holdings, markets, education, tax collection and the acquisition of soldiers
(Taylor, 2013). Overseeing social order was largely decentralised at local levels,
giving rise to a common (and still current) idiom, Phép Vua thua lệ làng (the King’s
influence stops at the village gate). As one of the research participants said:
‘Imagine long ago, villages were surrounded by bamboo making it difficult for
outsiders to get in. They were like independent communities’. The dynamics of
village life were maintained by low population mobility, homogeneity and a
communal ethic to ensure social order. Whilst the collective created a form of
equality among villagers, it existed within an underlying rationale (lý do/reason)
for a hierarchical social structure to sustain the natural order – that there was a
proper form of all relationships (Jamieson, 1993). The social structure was a
patriarchal system in which filial piety (hiếu thảo) emphasised the primacy of male
blood ties and, consequently, the subjugation of women. In Vietnamese culture,
village-level independence meant local customs and conventions (hương ước)
took precedence and centrally-made laws and policies might not be treated as
significant or binding (H. Q. Nguyen, 2010). This enabled local village elders to
‘dispense contextually relevant forms of justice’ (H. Q. Nguyen, 2010, p. 362).
Despite increased urbanisation and population migration, localised relationships
remain an important factor in modern Vietnam. Indeed, a police officer reinforced
the contemporary importance of connections by saying: ‘In Vietnam, if you have
no relationships you can’t get anything done’.

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In urban areas, interaction with the ward (modern day village) police is one arena
where police-community relationships are shaped.64 The local policing model and
the broad functions police undertake (e.g., fight fires, protect the environment,
approve travel papers [National Assembly, Ordinance on Commune Police, 2008,
Article 9]) result in a certain level of familiarity and frequency of contact with the
public. 65 These relationships do not always reflect vertical hierarchies but,
instead, mirror complex social ecologies.

One student described how she felt after seeing people she had arrested:

Firstly, I feel very sorry for [people I arrested] because they

are just businessmen, so I tried my best to reduce their
punishment … Some of them are poor and so I felt pity for
them. [My internship] was for four months. I practised at the
same police station [as a previous internship] and met the
same people again – even the people I have arrested. I felt
a little shy [seeing the people I arrested before] because
what they did was not very serious, and they have to earn
a living and I feel sorry for them. (Police student, female)

The sentiment expressed by the student shows she was sympathetic to the
economic deprivation experienced by people she arrested for what she
considered to be minor offences. Familiarity between police and local
constituents has been reported as a mediating factor for police to be lenient, and
documented especially in respect of the policing of illegal street vendors (Koh,
2004b, 2006; Turner & Schoenberger, 2012). This has a number of
consequences: communities may ‘get way with’ minor infractions while police
may gain access to information and even offenders. For example, although the

64
In rural areas, wards are referred to as communes and are less likely to have police educated
at the Police Academy in senior roles, or indeed, at all. Whilst the need for commune police to
be better trained has been acknowledged, progress has been slow (People's Police Academy,
2013a).
65
Ward police stations are a mixture of Academy and College trained staff. Only Academy staff
are qualified to hold the position of Ward Police Chief and are more likely than their College
trained subordinates to hold portfolio positions responsible for specific issues, which may also
include overseeing a small crew. While the hierarchy can shape the nature of duties undertaken
by officers both Academy and College staff work closely with communities.

171
household registration system has become more relaxed and its enforcement
may vary, residents are required to report to police to register any overnight
visitors, including relatives or friends. The hộ khẩu system facilitates a specific
police-community interaction; when they visit residents under the guise of a hộ
khẩu, check police are able to elicit information about a neighbourhood.66 A male
police officer said the population of his police zone (ward) was approximately
10,000 residents. He was responsible for managing the hộ khẩu of 1000 of them.
Another, different police officer joked that the informal nature of their networks
meant they didn’t have to go on patrol; the police just waited in the station for the
community to report transgressions or suspicions to them (Police officer, male).

The police in Vietnam described types of patrol that included riding a motorbike,
driving in a ‘small truck’, and foot patrol. There were different ways ‘frontline’ or
‘street’ policing was undertaken.67 Though there may be variations in how police
stations execute their duties, one officer explained that ‘patrol’ meant doing a
street sweep in a small truck two or three times a day – in the morning, afternoon
and evening. During these sweeps, police could look out for visible signs of crime,
stop and talk to people in the street, and also act as a deterrent to would-be
criminals who see them – similar to Western practice. With respect to foot patrol,
he explained how it involved going inside people’s private residences:

They only go on foot at night when they visit families in the

neighbourhood to hear about their problems and to get
some information on how things have been going around
like, “Do you see any strangers wandering around these
days?” If you do, tell me, we’ll see to it. [We go at night]
because it is only at night that most people are home. By
doing that, police in the ward level have a very wide range
of intel. Like a thousand eyes system. Each police officer is
assigned with a neighbourhood and mostly go by
themselves to their specified neighbourhood … For

66
The hộ khẩu system went partially online after completion of fieldwork for this study which
may reshape police-community interactions to an extent.
67
Even referring to ‘frontline’ or ‘street’ police is not a neat translation to the Vietnamese
context.
172
 example, when police visit a family, apart from asking if
something is not right, that police officer may check if there
is any person paying a visit to that family. Normally, the act
of informing police of someone visit your home may [now]
be done online, but police officers must be very careful,
online informing [only] is not enough. Officers would want
to see [for] themselves who this guest is.

There was a case that a wanted criminal went to his

cousin’s home to hide but the cousin didn’t tell the police
both online and offline. If the officer had not paid a visit the
criminal would have been safe and got away later. By doing
this day by day, police officers are able to know every single
person in the assigned area. Talk to every single one of
them. Even if there is hundred or a thousand of them. Each
day an officer may visit four or five families. I can’t really tell
how often a person would talk to an officer, but if they have
issues they may visit the ward police station during day and
ask to see that officer in charge of their area. It is the act of
preventing crimes and not letting crimes happen and then
go solve it because there are crimes which are so severe
the consequences could be dangerous. (Police officer,
male)

Consequently, community expectations of what the police do, and if, when and
how they might encounter police can vary. The fact that police frequently have
reason to enter the private homes of residents may change the conception of
public and private space compared with contexts where police do not perform this
function. This social and administrative role has been associated with corruption
and intimidation of residents (McKernan & McWhirter, 2009) and can mean if
residents upset the local authorities, police may withhold their services in
oversight of the household registers, affecting access to other social services,
such as education.

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Police expectations of residents include ‘obligations’ to participate in community
safety, described by another officer as: ‘Each civilian is a security officer of the
community, so they have a responsibility to provide information [to police] and
this is why Vietnamese police can deal with problems very fast and very
effectively’ (Police student, male). This responsibility is enshrined in Article 46 of
the Constitution (2013) which states that citizens have a ‘duty to obey’ and to ‘join
in the safeguarding of national security, social order and safety’.

Community participation in crime and social control occurs at various levels,

blurring the formal–informal and public–private mechanisms in Vietnamese
society. For example, Street Knights (Hiệp sĩ đường phố) are volunteers
(although they may be paid through informal arrangements by ward police) who
have no official training or equipment but who carry out neighbourhood patrols to
prevent crime. The model was first recognised in Bình Dương province (near Hồ
Chí Minh City) in 2003 in response to concerns about rising crime and was
adopted several years later in Hồ Chí Minh City (VietNamNetBridge, 2018). The
program’s implementation has evolved slowly and the Street Knights continue to
be regarded as upholders of law and order, although there are questions about
how effectively they perform this role. In Bình Dương province, the Street Knights
model came under the supervision of the head of the Commune Police. In May
2018, an incident occurred in Hồ Chí Minh City where two Street Knights were
stabbed and killed while intervening in a robbery (BBC News Tiếng Việt, 2018).
Reports about their deaths raised issues about their role: some saw them as
necessary for public safety (partly because there were not enough police)
whereas others saw them as unaccountable and untrained (BBC News Tiếng
Việt, 2018; VietNamNetBridge, 2018). In response to the incident, a Street Knight
in Hanoi proclaimed he would continue his work protecting the community despite
the fate of his southern ‘teammates’ (Báo Lao Động, 2018). He described an
incident 10 years earlier in which a robbery suspect threatened to infect him with
HIV to evade arrest. Undeterred, he struggled with and arrested the suspect
despite getting covered in blood in the process. As a result, he had to undergo
preventive medical treatment for HIV exposure and ‘hide’ from his family for three
months. He did not contract the virus and continues to work as a Street Knight.
This performance of righteousness accords with the Confucian ideal of Yi ( / ,
174
associated with righteousness or justice, and is reflective of the influence of
traditional Confucian ideas on aspects of Vietnamese police culture.

The concept of non-enforcement and moral education have been described in

this study as key features of policing and social control reflecting a broader
cultural tendency to avoid conflict. However, there is little empirical information
available on its effectiveness in terms of preventing crime and reducing
recidivism.68 Whilst police officers and students cited flexibility (linh hoạt) as an
ideal approach, there may be alternative explanations for such practices, such as
limitations on police resources. In his study on youth offending in Vietnam, Le
(2017, p. 275) referred to ‘under-vigilant policing’ and reported:

a sense of under-enforcement and mismanagement, a lack

of interest in policing regulations regarding the handling of
alcohol consumption, management of games and the
internet, management of firearms, weapons and other
support equipment and handling of crimes and other illegal
activities … Instances of domestic violence were ignored;
school violence, gang affiliation, games addiction and the
availability of drugs and firearms were similarly not seen as
priority areas of policing. It could be argued that policing, in
a sense, had failed in this regard.

A senior male officer said that, in the past, police made decisions about whether
to prosecute a crime, by referring specifically to three factors: professional police
skills, political implications, and the law.69 The officer went on to say that this
approach to policing was no longer relevant for modern Vietnam and that the law
should be the only consideration behind police action. Nonetheless, Fe (2010, p.
201) has noted that China and Vietnam have similar practices which limit the
separation of ‘public governance and private human relations’, in part ‘due to the

68
Cox (2010) has discussed the concepts of non-enforcement and moral education in the
context of juvenile crime.
69
This reflects the sentiment regarding ‘contextual decision-making’ reported in China (M. R.
Dutton, 1992).
175
common practice of allowing special considerations on differentiated human
relations to play a role in public decision-making processes’.

Despite the rhetoric of the rule of law is being promulgated in Vietnam (Nicholson,
2010; Sidel, 2008), police officers and students in this study maintain that the use
of discretion, typically phrased as linh hoạt (being flexible), was essential to their
decision-making. It is useful to note that discretion and the rule of law are not
inherently opposed (Herman Goldstein, 1963). Ideally, discretion should be about
police making choices within those that law makes available. Nevertheless, the
breadth of scope for interpretation can sometimes create ambiguity about what
constitutes strict legality, and community expectations of what the police (and
authorities) should do (where community expectations are contrary to the law)
can, in turn, influence how they respond or resolve concerns (Salomon & Vu,
2010).

Questions about discretion were met with responses describing it as natural that
decisions were tempered based on empathy, compassion and benevolence.70
This may include nhận, or the inclination to go beyond rules to do good or
kindness, and tình, whereby rules are exercised subjectively and unpredictably
(Jamieson, 1993). Being flexible meant avoiding formal sanction altogether or
going beyond rules to reduce a punishment: for example, writing out a fine for an
offence other than the most accurate reflection of the transgression – but with a
lesser financial penalty – so as not to impose a severe levy.

It is important to be flexible every time with the citizens

because otherwise it might not create good relationships.
They may have no knowledge [of the law], but they expect
that the police must be helpful. Police should not be
perceived as being inflexible and the people think that is
what police should do. (Police student, female)

Good relationships with the community were described as paramount for policing
which reflects a shared view from Western policing despite the very different

70
Although half the interview sample comprised students, most had experience working in the
community for at least short periods through internships at local police stations.
176
political systems. For example: ‘If the community trust us, the job will be easy and
effective’ (Police student, female). And: ‘It is tradition in Vietnam to work together
so the work of the police is for security and safety and that is why we should keep
good relationships with locals’ (Police student, male).

Police as educators in an evolving legal environment

Vietnam’s rapid development and evolving legislation have been cited as reasons
why people might not be up to date with current laws or deliberately flout them
given their susceptibility to change (Koh, 2004a). Reflecting on a visit to
Singapore, a senior male police officer noted the lack of flexibility there with the
remark, ‘I learned that rules are rules. You can’t change’. He said in Vietnam
there were exceptions to rules where political issues were concerned, but that it
was only a matter of time for the country to upgrade and improve legislation and
the public’s knowledge of it.

Knowledge of the law was not only central to the police role in enforcement but,
in the words of one police student, also important so police ‘can explain what
people are confused about to better solve civilians’ problems’ (Police student,
female). In interviews, police officers and students emphasised their role in
educating people on the law, for example, if people were not aware of the law it
was important to give them a ‘second chance’, especially for minor offences. A
male police officer drew attention to what he saw as a difference in legal
knowledge and community expectations of police in Vietnam compared with
those of Western countries:

For example, rural criminals do not understand the law …

some of the criminals come from the rural areas and they
do illegal behaviour, but they believe it is legal behaviour. If
police prosecute them like in a Western country, there
would be a backlash in the community. First, we have to
give propaganda71 and give the criminal a warning that they
may be sent to jail if they do it again because they are
misunderstanding the government policy and law.

71
Education and information.
177
 Development must go along with the knowledge of the
residents. It means that if you bring Western police to
Vietnam, they have no ability to do the work in Vietnam. The
knowledge of the residents is different. It is different
knowledge and different culture. (Police officer, male)

Police in Vietnam spoke of their country’s unique context and the specific
challenges they face. A difference to Western policing approaches was also
evidenced by police perceptions of their role as educational or rehabilitative, even
when a person was not charged with a crime, let alone found guilty and convicted:
‘If we lack evidence to charge a suspect, we still make them write a regret letter,
then we help them to find a job’ (Police officer, male). In overseeing the process
of suspects writing ‘regret letters’, police positioned themselves as having a
higher morality than the community. Knowledge of the law was important to police
not only in performing their ‘propaganda’ functions, but also as a way to navigate
how to do things:

You need to know the law to explain it to the people and

your boss. Also, by knowing the law you can break it and
then find the right way to explain it … Flexibility on duty is
important. If you follow the law, it can be hard to prove a
case (Police officer, male)

Vietnam’s regulatory environment is evolving and can be a source of frustration

for those working within it. The inherent tension between social harmony and
social stability has seen the police force juggling multiple and even contradictory
policy approaches. Policy approaches in terms of disconnect in legislation and a
lack of codification (e.g. see the quote below “[Environmental crime is a] new
field, the Criminal Law is not written very clearly”). Consequently, ambiguity or
unpredictability can be symptomatic of interpretation as much as cultural factors
(e.g. social harmony) as well as tensions between legal and moral imperatives in
a practical sense. Gainsborough et al. reported on commentary that sometimes
legislation is drafted quite deliberately to render it ineffectual against ‘vested
interests’ (2009, p. 404). In contrast, two participants mentioned that enacting
laws to legitimise some of the covert police tactics used to investigate high-level
178
crimes was best avoided because to do so would reveal to potential suspects the
extent of ‘professional measures’.72 One officer described how the law could be
an impediment for successful investigation and prosecution of serious criminal
cases:

You know in my country it is quite hard to deal with a lot of

[environmental] crime. But now it’s hard because of the law.
[Environmental crime is a] new field, the Criminal Law is not
written very clearly, punishment is not serious enough and
they can continue [to break the law] because the law is not
serious enough. But now we have new laws. The
environment is related to high people in Vietnam. A lot of
people are ‘Big Sports’ and it’s quite hard for police to
[investigate] because we have to follow the law. (Police
officer, female)

Police officers’ knowledge of the law gave them a form of cultural capital. This
was not always used for the benefit of the public or to improve police practices,
but it did create a sense of the police as morally significant. On the one hand,
being more informed than the public provided them with a greater sense of
morality. Their job entailed sharing their legal knowledge and educating others
about correct behaviour and this gave police a position of literal and ethical
power. On the other hand, intentionally withholding legal information about police
tactics and refraining from promoting legislation in order to keep the public
uninformed meant that police were ethically compromised. Legal knowledge and
control over how it would be disseminated, if at all, provided police with cultural
capital that built their reputation and reinforced their strength. An example of this
might be as simple as a failure to explain the law to an offender but to punish
them anyway (e.g., a traffic violation). This was seen as reprehensible because,
as one female student remarked, it might result in police getting a bad reputation.
The act itself was less problematic than the potential loss of the moral high
ground. Claiming the high moral ground could be a source of symbolic capital as

72
This phrase was often used by research participants as a catch-all for investigative tactics.
When asked for further explanation as a general rule it was rarely forthcoming.
179
per Bourdieu’s (1990a) conceptualisation where individuals struggle for power
(including status) in the social order.

The position of the police officer is complicated by notions of flexibility. Flexibility

covered a range of acceptable behaviours from avoiding applying the law in order
to be lenient and build good relationships to going beyond the rules (illegality) in
some more serious cases; for example, to prosecute a suspect where, despite
the available evidence being patchy, police were convinced of their criminality.
This latter practice has been reported widely in Anglo-American policing,
sometimes described as ‘noble cause corruption’ whereby police justify using
illegal means to achieve the ‘moral’ ends of arresting or prosecuting a suspect
(Seumas Miller, 1999). Flexibility creates a moral intersection which relates to
conflicts for the police in both enforcing the law and withholding knowledge.
Furthermore, there is the perception within the community of police using
knowledge as currency and in self-interest as well as officers’ own internal moral
issues about their duty and integrity.

Principle of non-intervention: protected values or pragmatism?

In Vietnam police retain a monopoly on coercive force. Maintaining their (and the
Party’s) position of power is a constant process of ‘control’ and ‘mediation’ (Koh,
2006) and requires money, time, networks, political jockeying and of course finely
tuned knowledge of social and political situations. The role of police in mediating
people’s experience with the law can also be used to garner support for (or
repress resistance to) the police’s monopoly on coercive force (Skolnick & Fyfe,
1993). Decisions about whether to follow the law or not can depend on how one
justifies a particular course of action (Bittner, 1970, 1974). The concept of
‘protected values’ provides a rationale for understanding decision-making
processes (Lucius, 2009). According to Jamieson (1993), a broad cultural
characteristic among Vietnamese people propels certain actions within normative
social structures based on a sense of duty, justice, righteousness and calm
rationality (nghĩa). It includes the pursuit of strategic social roles regardless of
individual preferences. As one police officer (male) says below, maintaining
‘harmony’ is valued over potential for conflict:

180
 There is the principle of non-intervention in Vietnamese
culture. To keep harmony among the people is to not blame
anyone and say one person is at fault, but to negotiate and
keep everyone happy. (Police officer, male)

In practical terms, harmony was not the only reason for non-intervention. Police
referred to justifications for non-intervention for a number of other reasons,
including public safety. One officer explained: ‘If there is a village with a big family,
if the police prosecute one person there without the agreement of the head of the
village, there would be anger in this village; it is about security’. The security of
the community as a whole may, under certain conditions, be a deterrent to
enforcing the law. The situation cited above is a typical example of communal
needs dictating appropriate responses to crimes. In these circumstances police
tend to prioritise the community’s needs over the rule of law highlighting how the
law itself is only one source of justification for police intervention.

The term ‘non-intervention’ may refer not to a passive process but an active
process, for example deciding to pursue an outcome which conforms to a higher
protected value. One male student put it this way: police ‘must have flexibility. We
have to choose what is the best solution to get. We must be active and decisive
to be professional’. The pursuit of the ‘best solution’ or harmony is not, however,
always straightforward. Interpretations about what constitutes harmony, or
pleasing everyone, may mean different things to different people. For example,
cultural characteristics associated with a strong sense of loyalty (trung) to family,
extrapolated to authority and hierarchy, reaffirm conformity and status quo as
indicators of harmony (Jamieson, 1993). Other indicators of harmony can be seen
in a range of cultural values; their interpretation is influenced by personal agency
and collective interpretations.

Hiếu thảo (filial piety) determines who merits certain types of behaviour or
attitudes, usually understood as obeying, respecting and honouring one’s parents
and acting with virtue and humility to elders. Social contracts require younger
‘brothers’ to respect, obey and support older brothers and, in turn, older brothers
teach, nurture and protect their younger brothers. A senior officer said police
should ‘never’ arrest a person (usually a male) for domestic violence for a first
181
offence, which reflects the typical police response described by Perkins, Cotrel-
Gibbons and Nguyen (2017) . The officer said they should always get a warning
first, regarding such a matter as more of a conflict than a crime. A common
response to reports of domestic violence was for a husband and wife to be invited
to the police station to discuss their problems with police and to be told to stop
fighting (Police officer, male). A female officer said police would involve the local
Neighbourhood Head or civil security officials to speak to the family to find out
more about the conflict, but indicated this would not necessarily be with a view to
progressing the incident to a criminal investigation, which would depend on its
seriousness and whether it was recurrent.

Whilst police discretion was described as essential, as demonstrated, how it was

enacted could be problematic. Another instance of discretion as being potentially
problematic was the unpredictable and on occasion unfair use of leniency.
Several police officers referred to situations where if one citizen was shown
lenience and another denied it based on an officer’s discretion, it could result in
negative community attitudes building towards the police force overall. This
reputational damage was further enhanced by the impression that some police
benefitted, even financially, from choosing who to charge and who to let go.

For example, if there are six vendors, [the police] let four or
five go but stop one and give a fine … Other vendors may
not follow. Also, if the police follow the rule 100 per cent it
will be fine, but they don’t want to because they will not get
advantages, for example, small money. (Police officer,
male)

Interestingly, even though discretion or flexibility was justified in terms of

promoting harmony in the community, some police conceded common
complaints about them were due to slow responses or inaction on their part.
Reasons for this may include the importance of taking into account any
detrimental or unforeseen implications of police intervention. Additionally, anxiety
about causing problems, or upsetting the established hierarchical order, creates
a culture where seeking advice and approval from superiors before taking action
is extremely common. This practice was identified among police in Japan (Bayley,
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1976). However, formal mechanisms of accountability, as described by Bayley
(1976), may increase efficiency in the Japanese context. In this study, two police
officers described the importance of consulting with colleagues to get approval
prior to making an arrest. One officer said it was important to avoid arresting
someone in case they were already wanted by an officer in another ward. The
other officer highlighted the role of the supervisor in this situation:

Police can’t action an arrest by themselves without the

boss’s approval. They must wait until they have a direction
or order from the boss. It is illegal to arrest someone without
approval [from the boss] even with evidence. In an
‘emergency’ situation you can arrest. For example, a
murderer who uses a gun to shoot is seen by police [as
someone] they can arrest … to immediately stop them.
(Police officer, male)

Police officers emphasised the importance of crime prevention over detection and
investigation. One officer said: ‘The main job is not to catch [arrest] people but to
prevent crime’ (Police student, male). Statistics on crime are not readily available
in Vietnam, and several officers indicated that fewer recorded crimes may be
construed as a measure of good performance. It may also be the case that
consultation with supervisors about whether to make an arrest could contribute
to a reluctance towards formal intervention. Given the police’s dual subordination
to their direct supervisors as well as Party officials, consultation about intervention
may be complex. A senior police officer said one of the most difficult parts of
police work was having to negotiate the occasional competing expectations of
police superiors and the demands of the People’s Council and People’s
Committee, especially where the latter tasked police with jobs outside the official
police remit. One example of this was the unexpected police role in Hanoi’s urban
expansion, an important project for the Party, which brings economic and social
development to the capital. The officer imparted that, although the development
was welcome, it also brought more drugs and crime to deal with, précised as
‘More people, more problems’. Consequently, the police had to respond to the

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crime-related problems and tasks for local Party officials which increased their
overall workload.

This section has focused on ways that police mediate responses to social order
concerns and criminality, particularly ways in which flexibility is used to avoid law
enforcement. It has also highlighted that police tolerance for transgressions may
be applied differentially depending on circumstances. One female student told
me that community expectations of police were changing and that improvements
were necessary: ‘The police deal with problems related to the [policing] of citizens
so they have to be more transparent and follow the law and respect human rights’.
One area where transparency was particularly difficult to enforce was crimes
relating to political dissent. Political crimes can be prosecuted and punished
harshly. Although this topic was not within the scope of this research, on one
occasion I asked about the role of police in investigating people who might be
critical of the government and was informed the topic was ‘confidential and
classified and so I don’t want to comment’ (Police student, male).73Similarly, the
scope for exploring police investigations and interrogations in this research study
was limited.

‘You can’t be a stranger in your own society’: the informal economy

Vietnam has a gift-giving culture where gratuities are given and received as social
custom. Sometimes gifts are in the form of cash (often in small envelopes) for Tet
(Lunar New Year), anniversaries or special occasions. Offerings are also referred
to as ‘appreciation money’ which can be given as a sign of respect or gratitude.
Vietnam’s history includes mutual support groups or collectives where money
may be pooled and given to members on an understanding that the benefit will
be returned later if in need. Cash may also be given with an expectation of favour
or benefit that would otherwise not be forthcoming, or it might be extracted
coercively.

73
Media reports demonstrate dissenters can be prosecuted and sentenced (Reuters, 2018) but
studies show that, even within this sensitive area, there is also room for flexibility, negotiation
and tolerance (Kerkvliet, 2014a).
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Though the police were ranked as the country’s most corrupt institution
(Transparency International, 2013), other sectors are not immune. In 2008, 85
per cent of citizens perceived ‘serious corruption’ in central health services, and
65 per cent perceived ‘corruption’ in health services at the local level (General
Statistics Office Of Vietnam, 2013). The education sector was also viewed as
most corrupt (second only to the police) by respondents surveyed in 2010
(Transparency International Vietnam Programme, 2011). In this context, it may
be argued that police behaviour conformed to normal societal standards. But their
reputation as corrupt and the prevalence of payments from citizens to police
concerned some members of the force because the police are the institution
charged with a statutory obligation to deal with corruption and they also claim to
operate to a higher moral standard.

Several officers felt helpless to improve practices around informal payments. One
officer captured the relationship between one’s environment and perceived
obligations within it and the inclination to follow the ‘rules of the game’ through
the expression: ‘You can’t be a stranger in your own society’. The following
response also highlights the interdependence of income and expenses across
sectors:

I might not agree with the way people work in Vietnam, but
I have to adapt … It is not our culture [to give and receive
money]. It is a practice that has developed. It is necessary
to survive. My wife and I are middle-income [earners] but
we have so many expenses … I understand that it is not
right to pay or get payment for some things in our work, but
it is about balance. I have to pay teachers and doctors. I
can’t do that on a police salary. (Police officer, male)

In Vietnam, low salaries for public servants have been given as one reason for
the existence of an informal economy (Gregory, 2016; UNDP, 2009). In 2016, the
Government indicated ‘public employees, teachers and doctors’ may get a pay
rise, in part because low incomes could increase corruption (H. Nguyen, 2016).
This was confirmed by an officer who described inadequate salaries among those
working in the public service as a source of empathy from the broader community,
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eliciting tolerance for informal payments for those in public office (Police officer,
male). Another police officer said, as his police salary was inadequate, he had to
work a second job to make ends meet. He lamented this extra work made him
tired and that if he was paid more he could focus more on his official duties.
Another police officer resolved the dilemma of informal payments in the following
way:

Even though [some police officers] get black money; we try

to make a balance between our salary and the way we get
more income. We have conflict in our minds about this and
so if somebody is innocent then we will not ask for money
from them because they haven’t done anything wrong.
(Police officer, male)

I presented the possibility of police needing to supplement their salary to another

officer who countered, ‘I think the salary is enough for police to live on and so
they don’t need to take money from the people’ (Police student, male). Despite
this view Gainsborough et al. (2009) explain that:

corruption in Viet Nam is not primarily an ethical issue: most

people in Viet Nam are thoroughly decent people who
nevertheless operate in a system which requires certain
kinds of behaviour of them if they are going to survive in the
system, to provide for their families, and to get things done.

One police officer conceded he received informal payments but also explained
that he and his wife gave financial support to a local single mother in their
neighbourhood, so she could send her young daughter to school. In this way, the
informal economy circulated money, which could benefit the disadvantaged.

A senior officer said he was aware of Western interpretations of the ‘cultural’

practice of giving an ‘offering’ or money in ‘appreciation’ to others and confusing
this with corruption. He said this misunderstanding often deterred Vietnamese
from discussing the issue with foreigners. This already intricate situation is further
complicated because police ‘requests’ for money are not always from people who
have committed crimes. Sometimes money is requested from residents or

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businesses as a regular or annual ‘fee’. Such requests are not necessarily explicit
although they can become a taken-for-granted procedure, which some people
participate in willingly in order to ‘speed up’ a slow bureaucracy, or to keep good
relations with the police in anticipation of prompt future service. Often these
payments are made reluctantly but with an acceptance that making them is part
of the broader system. This is exemplified by on-the-spot payments in lieu of
paying formal fines. A female officer noted that Traffic Police might have a bad
reputation because they give out infringements to traffic violators. She noted that
‘often people want to pay immediately to the police officer’, instead of going to
the revenue office. It is a practice sometimes referred to as giving the police
‘coffee money’ whereby a smaller amount is paid on the spot – unofficially – and
instead of lodging formal payment in person and where the convenience of online
payments was not yet available.

Although the practice of informal payments can be used by police to extract

money from drivers, it can also be more convenient and cheaper than the official
process (only of course if the accused agrees they are guilty of the alleged
transgression). During my research, I had the following encounter which
demonstrates the normalcy of such practices:

The young guard outside the police station looked in our direction as
our car approached the driveway. The small carpark was not quite full.
A sign said it was reserved for official use only. The driver told me to
wind down my window. He yelled out to the guard: ‘Can I park here?’,
pointing to the street directly outside the large, city police station. The
guard looked at us blankly. Again, ‘Can I park here?’. The guard
nodded – sort of. At the time, I would have said he nodded, but in
hindsight it was perhaps a nervous response to seeing a foreigner
visiting the offices of a national-level police department. After I finished
my meeting it was a surprise to myself and my driver to see police in
green uniforms about to attach a paper notice to the car windscreen –
a fine for parking in that area during a prohibited time. Why did the
guard say we could park there? We were only there an hour. These
questions went unanswered as the guard in question was at lunch.

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The driver’s polite protestations to police about the guard indicating
the parking arrangement was OK upon arrival did nothing to have the
fine revoked. The police officer handed over the paper notice saying,
‘It’s too late. It is already written’. The police officer pointed to a sign
clearly stating there was no parking at that time – which both the driver
and I had clearly missed on arrival and a currently absent guard’s nod
was no endorsement for our parking request. I can’t be sure at which
point the group of police saw me – a foreigner – accompanying the
driver. It seemed the officer with the fine responded with ‘It’s too late’
before he turned to see me, but it is possible a colleague mentioned it
without me hearing or understanding in the dialogue that was taking
place. It may even be an irrelevant point, but, after being told the fine
would stand the driver took out a đ500,000 note (a substantial fine.
Approx. AUD$25) and held it down low whilst reaching over to the
officer, smiling, in request to withdraw the fine. The officer closed his
folder and turned and began to walk away. The driver politely asked
him to reconsider, pointing out we had been at a meeting with an
officer ranked among the most senior in the country and that the guard
told us we could park there. Still, he did not change his mind.

At this point, my presence was obvious, and I decided to engage with

one of the officers who had been observing the exchange with his
colleague. I asked, ‘What’s going on?’. The officer adopted a big grin,
I assumed at the novelty of a foreigner speaking Vietnamese, he said
cars could only be parked in that section of the street at night time or
they get towed away. I said, pointing toward my driver, ‘Why can’t he
pay the fine now?’ – in full knowledge paying cash to police on the
street is illegal. Still smiling, he said the fine had to be paid at the
revenue office around the corner, waving his hand over his head in
vague direction; the fine was already issued. He asked how I learnt to
speak Vietnamese and we had a brief chat before the group of police
continued their street parking supervision further along.

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 The interaction between the ‘finers’ and ‘finee’ had been a friendly
affair; a kindly protest by the driver claiming an innocent mistake due
to relying on the apparent approval of the guard instead of checking
the signage ourselves; the officers were not posturing or intimidating
– physically or verbally – and in my view engaged with the driver
suitably enough to acknowledge his pleas but moved on to indicate a
change of mind was not forthcoming. What is instructive, though, is the
normalcy apparent in the attempt to circumvent the official penalty of
what I later found out was đ800,000 by offering the reduced amount of
đ500,000 on the spot. Not only was the driver seeking a discount, but
he expressed his annoyance at the inconvenience of having to go to
the revenue office to complete the payment (which we did
immediately) that added insult to whole affair. Moreover, the visible
attempt to bribe the police occurred outside a major police station, by
someone with a close police connection, in front of a foreigner (also
with a policing background), in the course of research about police.
(Reconstructed from fieldnotes, 2016)

My observation of the driver offering ‘unofficial’ money to the police could be a

reflection of the findings of a World Bank (2012, p. 46) report which showed
Traffic Police (and local and Economic Police) are more likely to be offered
unofficial money than to ask for it. In Vietnam, corruption in the form of informal
payments or bribery can speed up a slow bureaucracy (World Bank, 2012).
Nguyen et al. (2016, p. 361) found that, in business, the more common informal
payments were in conducting commerce in specific areas, the more prevalent
they were. They became integrated into normal business activities. But in policing
this was not always the case. Individual police demonstrated agency by finding
ways to navigate around practices they personally felt to be unethical. For
example:

Some years ago, I thought I have to follow the common

way, for example, make relationships by offering
something. I learnt in many ways, for example, the most
important thing I think I learned is from Buddhism and other

189
 religions such as Islam, for example, I should not follow bad
things like drinking, corruption or hurting people. (Police
officer, male)

Police in Vietnam are simultaneously citizens, government actors and Party

members, and as they are only one of many sectors undertaking these practices,
they cannot be singled out for their role in the informal economy. Where police
can be singled out, however, is the power they wield over the populace in an
environment with limited avenues for complaint. However, in a World Bank
survey, the highest proportion of respondents indicated having made the most
unofficial payments in the previous 12 months to the healthcare sector (World
Bank, 2012, p. 53) to which restricted access can have life-limiting
consequences.

Embracing and resisting change

Progress for the PPF requires balancing the tension between a national identity
rooted in its resistance to prolonged foreign invasion and occupation and a desire
to learn from international experience and technological advances. It is a question
of how to be open and closed at the same time:

There are advantages and disadvantages. We have

relationships with other countries with more experience and
knowledge which we can apply, but as we open our house
we can get more light from outside there are more
international criminals that come into our house. (Police
officer, female)

Students and officers viewed the challenges of policing in terms of technological

capability and transnational crimes (or at least these were challenges they
regarded as suitable to describe to a foreign researcher). The Vietnamese police
share these challenges with other police forces trying to adapt to changing global
conditions. For example, foreign aid to upgrade technology at the Police
Academy came from the South Korean aid agency Korea International
Cooperation Agency (KOICA) which had developed systems deemed more
culturally suitable for sensitive issues in Vietnam than Western countries (Police
190
officer, male). Notwithstanding a preference for regional support, a male student
said possible sources for lessons for improvement could come from America’s
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as well as Russian expertise in forensic
science and technology. Some police described budget restrictions as limiting
their capability and that a lot could be learned from more developed countries.

There are some characteristics we can learn from Western

police to improve our organisation. I think in the west they
have the budget of the government. I mean, the police have
more investment in technology, tools, cars and fees to do
investigations. In one case of the police in Australia, for
example, if they successfully investigate a case, the
government will pay the witness for providing information.
In Vietnam, we don’t do that. I told the AFP [Australian
Federal Police] officer here, if you give me half of your
money, I will use it very well. [laughs] In Vietnam, we are a
developing country, we don’t have enough money … The
knowledge of Western police is useful because of
technology … they have collection of data in high tech
crime, and good professional knowledge on how to collect
evidence. All of that should be necessary knowledge for the
Vietnamese police force. (Police officer, male)

Overall, there was an eagerness to learn from foreign countries which stemmed
from a recognition that Vietnam was less economically developed, for example:

Now we are still a developing country and so the police

force has some problems in running our force. We hope the
police in other countries have good relationships to help us,
especially in technology. (Police officer, female)

Vietnam’s relatively recent integration into global markets and state control over
the nature of that integration meant police also needed skill development to cope
with the changing environment. In particular, foreign language capability was
raised as a skill gap. The importance of foreign languages was linked to the need
to respond to transnational crimes and ‘learn more about treaties and agreements
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Vietnam has signed internationally’ (Police officer, male). Two officers specifically
mentioned the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

During interviews with staff and students at the Academy, I routinely asked the
question: ‘In 10 or 20 years, what changes do you think will be made in the police
force?’ Most students replied that they didn’t have a view on what the police might
be like in the future, whereas several staff members indicated the police would
have improved technology. It was brought to my attention by an officer at the PPA
that there was concern this line of questioning may be seen as an invitation to
elicit comments on changes to the political system more broadly. Given that
police, by law, report directly to the Communist Party, and are required to be
Party members, to ask about changes in policing implied changes to the one-
party state system and, by extension, a pro-democracy narrative. Another male
officer explained the implications of my question in the following terms:

If asking police in Vietnam about possible changes in the

future, it implies you are asking about changes in the
government too. Because the police and government are
so closely linked, a change in one implies a change in the
other.

Thus, any discussion about change in Vietnam must be sensitive to the broad
political agenda. Another officer spoke about how he wanted to inspire and
encourage younger generations of police to ‘embrace change’:

I want to inspire students to embrace change. Change is

happening all the time. Nothing is ever staying the same. If
we want to improve, we must change. But we only have
control over ourselves. We can change ourselves, but we
can’t change others. To make bigger changes in the police,
we must change the leadership. I don’t mean the individual
leaders should change, but that they should all help make
change happen. I don’t want to tell them “what” change they
should make, just that they should pursue change because
change is what makes our lives and country better. (Police
officer, male)
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Vietnam’s history is one of constant change balanced with the maintenance of (at
least a veneer of) societal tranquillity and harmony. To speak of change in
Vietnam can be a fraught and sensitive subject. A participant recommending or
simply raising the idea of change could have negative connotations as it suggests
something wrong with current practice, which needed fixing. If something needed
fixing then it could be an indictment on those police, likely senior officers, who
had supervised practices to that point. Softer words such as ‘upgrade’,
‘renovation’, and ‘renew’ are frequently used instead of change. The reluctance
to speak openly about change is reflected in ideas about accountability and
blame. Several police mentioned that the cultural practice of not questioning
elders or supervisors was detrimental to the country’s general development. They
felt that, as discussed earlier, it was more important to fit in and conform than
challenge this norm:

Vietnam’s police need to improve both responsibility and

accountability. At the moment police have responsibility to
their superiors, not accountability to the people. A culture of
not questioning authority holds back development of our
country. (Police officer, male)

Reluctance to pursue change might also reflect a reluctance to disrupt the natural
order of things imposed by lý do (rationale) in Vietnamese culture (Jamieson,
1993) and reinforced through the militaristic rank structure. In several interviews
I asked students about their career aspirations; responses included: ‘It is not
really important to focus on promotion. I must focus on my study and
professionalism and I don’t think about getting promoted yet’ (Police student,
male); and, to achieve ‘a rank below captain. [But] I don’t think about what can
happen so far ahead’ (Police student, female).

To emphasise individual aspirations may be seen as stepping above one’s station

or an unwillingness to fit in. Jamieson (1993) refers to a cultural preference for
harmony by applying điều (a reasoned approach) whereby a willingness to adapt
or moderate one’s stance acts to dissuade excessive behaviour such as greed,
rigidity or over-assertiveness, which can bring about one’s own downfall. When
asked about whether senior officers were open to new ideas, one police officer

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explained that good leaders were those who were open to suggestions, who have
a long-term vision, and, importantly, did not create divisions within the community.

A good leader must be a person who creates a democratic

environment in the organisation. It means they have to
listen to the recommendations [of others] and persuade
other people if the recommendation is good and effective
for the team. The people who have the long-term strategy
will contribute to the development of the organisation and
they can be a leader. A leader can see drawbacks. If I’m a
good staff member, I can give advice to you about your
management. But a negative criticism can make people
hate other people or make a negative relationship between
the police and the people. (Police officer, male)

[I’ve learned from overseas teachers that leadership can

be] taught as meaning ‘influence’. In Vietnam, leadership
means command and order. I think influence is better. If
leaders want to influence someone they have to be moral,
intelligent and work harder than subordinates to be
influential. (Police officer, male)

To enhance police capability, officers suggested more openness could help. For
example: ‘Good policing has to be discussed and analysed so police are aware
of the issues and fulfil their duty and feel comfortable’ (Police officer, male). This
officer added that proposals for change seen as oppositional or rebellious could
be headed off with criticisms of ‘Westernised thinking’, which could dent the
authority of an idea.74 Whilst the ‘West’ was seen as an important source of ideas
it was also seen through the lenses of history, culture and ideology, many of
which retain strong negative connotations.

74
Despite this, one senior male officer pointed out that Hồ Chí Minh was a great leader because
he spent more than 30 years abroad studying ‘leadership’ in other countries. Also, the
Declaration of Independence by Hồ Chí Minh on September 2, 1945, was modelled on that of
the United States, highlighting that a charge of ‘Westernised thinking’ may be dependent on
circumstances.
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There were also reflections on what was suitable for Vietnam with reference to
other Asian countries. For example, one student who went on a study tour to the
Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy said he was surprised that the Thai students
did little or no study in the evenings. Instead, Thai police students were expected
to focus on exercise, and preparing their uniforms and polishing their boots for
the next day. The student thought there was an overemphasis on fitness and
appearance compared with expanding knowledge. He joked that Vietnamese
police students were ‘smarter’ than their Thai counterparts. Other examples
where Thai police students were highly disciplined included the way they have to
eat during their first year of training. They have to keep their elbow at a right-
angle at all times during a meal which makes it difficult to eat quickly. Due to the
rigid movements required to eat, students sometimes are unable to finish their
lunch in the allocated 30 minutes, or if they spill some food or relax their posture
they are required to do push-ups as punishment. The student described this type
of discipline as unnecessary and felt relieved that the PPA did not have the same
requirements. The observation also highlights variations between police in the
Asia region.

The ‘good’ police officer

Police perceptions varied in relation to their occupation and its status. Several
students and officers said they were proud of their career choice and said they
thought they were ‘admired’ and ‘loved’ by the community. There were also
descriptions of policing as being a ‘noble’ and ‘respected’ career.

In Vietnam, the people consider police work as noble …

police have to sacrifice a lot of things to complete tasks. We
sacrifice time for family and ourselves. The community
know that and appreciate it and know we protect their life
and maintain the security conditions and they can
concentrate on working and getting a peaceful life. (Police
student, male)

Police in Vietnam is a respected job. They have a higher

reputation. Everyone looks up to you. There is fixed working
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 time and higher salary. We get weekends off. Many other
jobs you have to work longer. In the war, the army and
police were a big part. It was a big achievement for the army
and police to win. Often, if parents are business people,
they want their children to become business people too.
Police parents want their children to be police. Children who
live in the police environment in their minds want to be like
their parents. (Police officer, female)

Others were sometimes reluctant to discuss community perceptions of the police,

often by saying they didn’t want to answer the question and to move on to a
different topic. Some expressed that policing was a difficult job and that they were
doing the best they could. One senior officer recounted how he was introduced
by a friend in the following way: ‘He’s a policeman, but he’s a “good” policeman’.
The officer said he didn’t appreciate the implication that by default, most police
were ‘bad’. Several officers felt that a minority of poorly-behaved police reflected
badly on the majority. For example:

Some people hate the police. When some people think

about the police force in Vietnam, they tend to judge a small
part as having not very good behaviour. It’s just a small part
but they apply it to the whole force. It makes me sad and
disappointed. Even some of my friends don’t think the
police are good so it makes me sad and disappointed.
(Police student, female)

An important part of PPA training was to ensure graduates could differentiate

between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ practices in the field. Police study at the Academy for
five (now four) years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Academy students also
complete three internships which are essential requirements for their degrees (a
one-month homestay, and two internships at police stations, three and four
months each). Students and staff were asked to reflect on the difference between
what was learned or taught in the Academy compared with practice. Theory was
sometimes used to refer to class-based activities such as learning how to fill in
forms and procedures, as well learning laws and academic approaches to
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policing. It also provided a basis for practical work and at times a contrast to the
lived realities of on-the-ground police work. For example:

Theory is a matter about research, law, criminology.

Something we can summarise from the case so that in
future we can’t make again that error, that mistake. So, it
will serve our practical work. (Police student, male)

Students expressed an appreciation for learning and respect for the teaching
staff: ‘The theoretical knowledge at the PPA was written by people who have high
professional skills, including the books, to teach students’ (Police student, male).
However, when students reflected on their internship experiences they often felt
that what was learned in the Academy required some adjusting in practice. In
other words, theoretical underpinnings provided some structure for daily work but
did not always reflect lived experience in the field.

In theory there are many ways to get access to a suspect

but in practice we use the same old methods. It is simple.
Each case is kind of the same. In reality there is flexibility to
apply a prior method to the task. The theory is too strict and
time consuming. It will save time if we skip some of the
phases. (Police student, female)

To be honest, I don’t see much difference between theory

and reality. It depends on the situation. We have to learn to
apply the theory we learn in the Academy in a flexible way
to get the best result in reality. What we learn in the
Academy is just general knowledge but the first step for my
job in the future must be on the basis of theory. For
example, I must obey the law and obey the regulations of
the MPS [Ministry of Public Security]. (Police student, male)

The practical work always changes because the context of

society and work changes quite regularly so practical
[experience] is like an addition to lessons in the Academy.
There are some situations in practical work we never

197
 learned at the Academy. We never expect it or encountered
it, so after practical lessons we can apply the theory after.
(Police student, male)

Once students graduated they found themselves navigating between theory and
practice, and trying to make sense of situations that required flexibility, discretion
and the use of “professional measures”. Each time police make a judgement call
on the job they do so in the space between academia and professionalism. Even
before they leave the Academy students learn how to enforce the law as it is
written and as it understood in reality.

One senior officer indicated that students were taught to follow the law as correct
behaviour:

In here [the PPA] we always aim to teach them to follow the

law so that you can still integrate and keep the good
characteristics of your own. When you see the good thing
you can learn it, or when you see the bad thing to stay away
from it. I can tell you that in my own experience, I’m certain
the students in the PPA have the ability to distinguish
between good and bad. It’s the most important thing a
student can get after graduating. I can make sure the
percentage of students violating regulations is lower than
others. (Police officer, male)

The officer acknowledged that, in practice, police were often flexible in applying
the law and claimed that Vietnam was transitioning to a rule-of-law system. But
whilst the Academy teaches the law, it can be disrupted by what happens in
practice. As described earlier, students and police reported a difference in theory
and practice, and that taking shortcuts was sometimes necessary and modelled
by more experienced officers. Therefore, one’s peers become important for
determining whether someone is doing a good job. This was further supported by
the following response to the question, ‘Who defines what being “good” at your
job means?’

198
 Firstly, the boss, the leader will proclaim if a person is good
or not depending on if they are good at what they are told
to do. Second, they have to love their job. Third, all the jobs
the boss tells them to do, they have to complete it. Also, the
people who decide if a person is good at their job are their
mates. (Police officer, male).

In contrast, it was noted that, ‘a bad police officer is someone who can’t gain the
trust of the community’ (Police student, male). The reputation of police could be
marred by the poor actions of a minority:

In the street, if they do something bad it can damage the

image of the police … But we have a proverb: ‘A person
with bad behaviour will make the whole herd of people
appear badly behaved’. I think they can have a bad image
on the People’s Police. (Police officer, male)

Criticisms of police were usually not mentioned until interviewees were prompted
and asked to specify reasons why some people might complain about the police.
The most common response was that people complained because police
investigations took too long, although one female student said sometimes people
are unhappy because the police ‘cheat’ them, specifically mentioning Traffic
Police. A male student said, ‘sometimes police use brute force and civilians think
that police are bullies’. A different male student summed up some of the avenues
the community could use to complain about police and described some possible
consequences:

For police officers in charge of part of the neighbourhood

we regularly have a meeting between the police officers and
neighbours of that ward. In that meeting anything that locals
complain about will be mentioned and spoken of, so the
police officer can think about it and correct their mistake and
improve their work. Or the other way is that each police
station has a mailbox and civilians who have a complaint
can write a letter which can be anonymous and put it in the
mailbox. When the chief of police station has a meeting with
199
 all the police officers of that station, all the mail will be read
and spoken out loud so as to warn or notice those police
officers who are not fulfilling their duty.

The Vietnamese police force also have a variety of

punishments for police who are not fulfilling their duty
according to their level. We have a variety of ways people
can complain about the police not doing their duty. There
are three main punishments for police officers in a ward
which are applied regularly those police officers [who] have
bad behaviour. The first is the police officer will be moved
to another division. Second, to cut the salary of the officer
for about one year or a period of time, or lower the rank of
that police officer by one rank. The third punishment is they
may be removed from the police force.

When asked to reflect on a negative image of police in Vietnam as presented in

a Human Rights Watch report (2014a), a young officer (unfamiliar with the report)
responded: ‘It surprises me that there is a bad reputation about Vietnamese
police, for example, I thought bad police were like those in Syria’ (Police student,
male). A senior officer stated Vietnamese police compared favourably with some
foreign forces, while making a joke about how the pursuit of profit is an activity
preferable to inciting violence:

Some say that the Vietnamese police are the best in the
world. For example, in the US, the police shoot people. In
Paris, why can’t the police stop terrorism? In Vietnam, there
are no such cases. Only bombing incidents happen from
workplace accidents. Some people make a joke that
‘Vietnam has no terrorism because if a terrorist has a bomb
they will sell it before using it’. [laughs] (Police officer, male)

Some officers argued that Vietnamese police have a superior approach, as

evidenced by a lack of terrorist activity. They critiqued the police capacity during
the recent terror targets in Belgium and France.

200
A core characteristic of police culture in the literature relates to solidarity and the
‘code of silence’ in which officers close ranks and refuse to share information on
their colleague’s transgressions. The consequences of doing so could result in a
person’s exclusion from the group or a withdrawal of support (Skolnick & Fyfe,
1993). Exposing the wrongdoing of one officer can be seen to reflect badly on the
many. Participants who said the police were held in high regard may truly believe
this is the case. It could also be that the consequences can be severe for negative
commentary about others or the organisation (and Party). One male officer,
remarking on the public security services, said they ‘talk about how good they are
but in the eyes of the public their image is fading. They know in their hearts that
their reputation is not good, but they will not admit it’. (Police officer, male)

The nature of police work everywhere means police may not have a good
reputation among some sections of the community. In Vietnam, the reputation of
the police is built on community relationships, shared favour and interactions with
the public, both positive and negative. How participants reflected on their ideas
about reputation was indicative of the tensions under which they work every day,
and the dissonance between personally-held beliefs and the limitations on
speaking freely.

Conclusion

Though police in this study promoted the importance of benevolence and

compassion in addressing criminality, these claims may also be a pretence for
lacking capacity to be more focused and effective (The World Bank, 2013).

In the West, community policing approaches were adopted in part in response to

the perceived failures of professional policing which emphasised maintaining a
distance between police and the community (Sklansky, 2011). The approach was
to increase police-community engagement and resolve problems through
consultation and consideration of local needs and defined as being a partnership
where police can be held to account by the community. It has also been shown
to be vulnerable to political influence and special interest groups who may be
more influential or have access to resources to sway police decision-making.
Police responses in this study do not align with the historic veneer of bureaucratic,
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‘professional’ law enforcement in the manner reported in early studies in the
global North. For example, the emphasis on village independence remains, and
the notion of ‘flexibility’ shows that police learn during their training and that
policing is not mere law enforcement but rather an active decision-making
process about whether enforcing the law is appropriate. To that extent, police
responses reflected that a cultural capital is associated with being seen by the
community to be understanding and compassionate. In addition, the emphasis
police officers placed on being educators (legal or moral) means police perceived
a cultural capital with having acquired legal knowledge which they could
disseminate to help people solve problems rather than relying on enforcement of
the law. This may reflect Wong’s (2010) distinction between Western problem-
oriented policing and his social resource theory in terms of understanding the
relationship between the police and the public in China. In Vietnam, police
perceived their contribution in terms of their being a resource for information,
rather than intervention. Future research could examine the circumstances as to
why people in Vietnam elicit police support and their expectations of police
involvement.

The current study focused on the uniformed public police, largely those who were
studying or working at the PPA or who had done so previously. It revealed police
in Vietnam work within a conceptualisation of public and private space which
differs from Western understandings. The interactions across the formal and
informal networks that enforce law and order are understood and enacted in both
superficial and highly complex ways. One example is the extent to which
neighbourhood patrols, such as those undertaken by Street Knights, are directed
by the police, and how they can be held accountable with respect to misconduct.
Consequently, local police stations function as an important intersection between
where the state ends, and the people begin and thus are a site for further
exploration between the population and the law.

The historical roots of the communal approach to social order means a

community response to policing in Vietnam already exists, although it differs from
the Western conceptualisation in several ways. Despite the communist ideology
of equality, the Confucian patriarchal social structure still underpins much of

202
Vietnamese culture. This means that power relations, including gender
hierarchies, are sustained and are difficult to dislodge in a broader system where
litigation against discrimination has been uncommon. The Communist Party
structure is instrumental in maintaining the Confucian social structure which, in
turn, reinforces a rigid, though often unwritten, hierarchy of control and power.
This means communal policing efforts based on local needs can be disrupted by
top-down influence. Furthermore, whether police decide to be flexible may be
subjective or politically motivated and lack fairness, meaning the rights of the less
powerful are not structurally protected and may be under-enforced and
dependent on the ‘flexibility’ of individual police. The lack of accountability
structures and power imbalances may also result in limited checks on whether
interpretations of community policing benefit vested interests. Furthermore, the
Vietnamese populace do not have recourse to an independent media who are in
a politically powerful enough position to expose poor police conduct. Whilst the
expansion of social media has filled this gap to an extent, complaining about
police via the digital realm can have consequences. This thesis does not examine
the role of social media in challenging police behaviour but over the past decade
there has been an example reported where complaining about police on
Facebook has led to the complainant being jailed (Voice of America, 2015). The
upshot of this enforcement of strict censorship when it comes to public
denunciations of police behaviour is that there is little recourse for those who feel
they have been mistreated or not taken seriously.

The pervasiveness of discretion in policing can also be read as necessary, even

desirable, because it enables police to respond to the constant and capricious
occurrences warranting police intervention and because ‘individual and social’
interests in some cases cannot be reconciled (Dixon, 1999; Kleinig, 1993).
Despite the strictures against complaining about police, it was clear from my
interviews that police regarded themselves as having an important role in
community life and saw themselves as holding a responsibility to solve
community problems. Thus, the concept of education and close contacts with the
community complemented local understandings of what police work entails.
Community policing approaches are sometimes defined by the proximity and
availability of police to engage with local communities, for example, the Koban
203
stations in Japan (Bayley, 1976), the paichusuo (PCS) in Taiwan (Cao et al.,
2014), and formerly the Neighbourhood Police Post System in Singapore
(Ganapathy & Cheong, 2016). Though there are a range of mechanisms for
police-community engagement in Vietnam, a marked difference from Japan and
Singapore is the extent to which the community can complain about police action
or inaction, or, indeed, too much surveillance.

Studies on the lack of enforcement of motorcycle helmet legislation (Sidel, 2008),

policing the sex industry (Koh, 2001), policing street vendors (Koh, 2006), and
drug law enforcement (Jardine et al., 2012; Khuat et al., 2012) have highlighted
discretion as commonplace. 75 These studies indicate that discretion is a core
element of policing functioning within the broader Vietnamese culture whereas in
policing research in the United States in the 1960s the discovery of discretionary
practices was identified as a crucial scientific insight (Sherman, 1984).

Responses in this chapter also highlight individual officers’ (publicly expressible)

views about policing in Vietnam using references to ‘the West’ or other countries
as a comparison. Officers saw the difference in terms of development, and
access to resources such as technology and equipment, between Vietnamese
police and those in the global North as a major contributing factor to different
policing styles. It was notable that, while Vietnamese police felt they were
technologically under-resourced to prevent and investigate crime, they did not
mention wanting access to technologies routinely used to improve police
accountability in other jurisdictions, such as mobile data terminals, global
positioning systems or body-worn cameras (for example see Ganapathy &
Cheong, 2016). Whether this discrepancy was the result of lack of knowledge
about these systems or the belief that they would not be useful in a Vietnamese
context was unclear. What was clear was that Vietnamese officers were adept at
balancing the unique power and social structures in which they operated and felt
that navigating those structures was inherent to effective policing.

In the context of liberal Western democracies, interaction with police patrol

officers has been described as the site at which the community confronts the
‘body politic’ (Van Maanen, 1973). In Vietnam, forms of capital available to police

75
Albeit often alongside petty bribery.
204
include: symbolic capital related to legitimacy, integrity and morality that came
with being associated with the Party who were responsible for reunifying the
country and implementing policies for economic growth; social capital associated
with flexibility and showing benevolence to people who may have committed an
offence to build good relationships; and economic capital associated with informal
payments or bribes for non-enforcement. As we have seen these three,
overlapping and often-competing, forms of capital, provide the baseline for police
motivations, behaviours and operations. The acquisition of all three requires
considerable finesse and in that process, police find themselves positioned
between the Party and the people. They are responsible for how official policy is
implemented and, to the extent to which implementation of a centralised political
agenda reflects its intent, can be mediated at the street and lower levels (Lipsky,
1980).

Some forms of corruption have been described as a result of structural flaws in

legislation where police extractions are used for regulatory purposes rather than
instances of individual deviance or venality (Dixon, 1999; Koh, 2001; Manning &
Redlinger, 1977). Dixon (1999) argues that not all corruption is negative and can,
indeed, have positive functions (he describes drug policing in Australia). Western
notions of transparency and anti-corruption interventions cannot be simply
applied to Vietnamese police. Though abuses of power do occur – as they do in
all police forces – the specific cultural, philosophical, political and institutional
circumstances in Vietnam have resulted in and continue to result in ways of
policing that follow different imperatives to Western-influenced security models.
This is not to say that corruption should not be addressed but, rather, to
understand that what constitutes corruption must be understood through a
Vietnamese lens.

Police in the global North were initially deemed monolithic and bureaucratic.
However, this may have been due to presentational strategies of police
organisations or just poor research rather than a reflection of reality. The ways
Vietnamese policing is represented may also focus too heavily on a limited
reading whereby the presentational strategy is reflected in images of police in
Vietnam, and discourse emphasising authoritarian aspects of the political and

205
public security regime (Thayer, 2014). However, there are also studies of
Vietnamese society which highlight space for dialogue and negotiation between
the State and its people (Kerkvliet, 2003, 2014a). Vietnamese police interviewed
in this study placed a value on non-intervention (referring to formal legal
intervention) over action-oriented and enforcement approaches. This
represented a different way of approaching policing than that previously
presented as core to the policing identity in Western studies. Analysing policing
under an authoritarian regime, where the potential for heavy sanctions can apply,
can lead to assumptions that law enforcement is strict and unforgiving; however,
police staff and students expressed the importance of flexibility, crime prevention
and educating the public on points of law as key aspects of their role.

206
Chapter 8: Matriarchy, mobilisation and modern women in
Vietnamese policing76

Introduction

In the 3rd Century, Triệu Thị Trinh (225-248AD) defied the plight of her peers and
seized her place as a military leader in Vietnam. Near the beginning of her
homeland’s protracted campaign to wrest sovereignty from Chinese invaders,
she famously declared, ‘I will not resign myself to the lot of women who bow their
heads and become concubines’. As a young warrior of 19 years, she was
persistently depicted in battle wearing feminine headdress, brandishing a sword
and commanding her army (of mostly men) into combat. She did so from atop an
elephant signifying her mastery over an animal many times her size and strength.
Her bravery was further revealed by her pronouncement, ‘I wish to ride the
tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I have no desire to take abuse’. Later
designated Bà Triệu (Lady Trieu), she fought over 30 battles by the age of 23.
When facing defeat, she chose to commit suicide rather than have her life
snatched by rivals who had her surrounded.77

The story of Bà Triệu provides us with a model of the iconic Vietnamese woman.
She is capable in leadership and unencumbered by fear. She is unconstrained
by physical limitations in warfare and exploits the weaponry at her disposal. In
the case of Bà Triệu this meant a sword and an elephant; in contemporary
Vietnam, security equipment and tactics have shifted. The history of Vietnamese
women features not only strong female roles, but also matriarchal practices
around lineage and land rights (Yu, 1999). However, this robust indigenous
history has been significantly impacted by colonisation and patriarchal Confucian
ethics (Duong, 2001) which influenced Vietnamese culture, including social

76
This chapter formed the basis of the following peer-reviewed article: Jardine, M. (2018a)
Gender equality and the role of women in policing in Vietnam. People’s Police Magazine.
Ministry of Public Security. Hanoi
77
Tales of Bà Triệu include that she was 9 feet tall, had a bellowing voice and breasts three feet
long the latter characteristic described as an affront to invading Chinese at a time where women
wrapped their chests to flatten their bust.

207
norms which deter women from pursuing higher education rather than current or
prospective male partners (ISDS, 2015).78

Notwithstanding, contemporary Vietnamese women have cleaved space within

male dominated realms of government, business, arts and social justice. In 2016,
Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh was appointed Vice President of Vietnam, the highest
position ever held by a woman. In the same year, Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân was
elected as the first woman Chair of the National Assembly for the 2016-2021
term. It is fitting then that, in 2016, ancient Vietnam’s early warrior, Bà Triệu, was
the inspiration for a compilation of stories about modern women leaders in
Vietnam. The authors of Bà Triệu’s 21st Century Daughters (Ohler & Do, 2016)
describe commonalities among the women portrayed as ‘their resilience, their
industry, their energy and grace in spite of the challenging circumstances many
of them face’. 79 These qualities demonstrate women do not have to abandon
femininity and grace in order to play a dominant role alongside men in society.
However, this multi-faceted and highly gendered list, may place unrealistic
demands on how women fulfil professional and personal expectations. Tài (2001,
p. 176) asserted that ‘Vietnamese cultural expectations regarding women’s
proper place and responsibilities were so varied and mutually contradictory as to
allow women to assume military duties while holding them to unchanged
standards of feminine decorum’. Accounts of women fighters in the Communist-

78
Importantly, this social norm is not confined to societies with a Confucian past and occurs in
the West.
79
Read more at http://vietnamnews.vn/sunday/features/344733/crashing-through-the-bamboo-
ceiling.html#rYyqBTTKYYFUlCrt.99

208
led campaign are on display at the Women’s Museum in Hanoi.80 81 and these
further illustrate the crucial role women have had in Vietnam’s security and in
fighting against waves of invaders.

Vietnam’s long history of invasion and revolt is a contributing factor to the

complex nature of women’s integration into contemporary public security. This is
very different from the dominant discourses in the global North. Anglo-American
policing scholarship documents women joining the police ranks under stable
governance and a focus on internal security. In Vietnam, women who pursue
employment in policing have traditionally followed in the footsteps of others who
were ready to protect national security from foreign intervention.82

As contemporary Vietnam has become more settled, women’s integration into

policing has shifted. After almost 40 years of peace and little scope for actual
fighting, women’s contributions to the national agenda have also been re-
mapped. This shifting terrain has not been entirely beneficial for women in
general and for women in policing in particular. Whilst Vietnam’s economic
development has substantially decreased poverty since Đổi Mới (Economic
Renovation) in the 1980s, a parallel story exposes an increase in gender
inequality. Vietnam recorded a drop in its international ranking on gender equality
from 42 in 2007 to 83 in 2015 (World Economic Forum, 2015) with a slow

80
Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai was one of the first female members of the VCP, traveling to Hong Kong
and the USSR to represent the Party between 1930 and 1935. ‘In 1940 as a member of the VCP
Committee in Cochinchina and secretary of the Saigon – Cholon section, she was arrested during
a planning meeting for the Cochinchina uprising. She received the death penalty and was shot in
Hoc Mon in 1941 at the age of 31’ (Women’s Museum). Hà Thị Quế (born 1921) was a military
leader in Bắc Giang province and member of the provincial VCP who led the political take over in
Yên Thế as part of the August Revolution in 1945 (Women’s Museum). Nguyen Thi Chien, a
‘guerrilla war chief’ known as ‘Woman who captures the enemy unarmed’ is recognised for
capturing four French soldiers, including an officer, whilst unarmed at the age of 21. ‘In 1952 she
was the first recipient of the title ‘Hero of the People’s Armed Forces’ awarded by the state’
(Women’s Museum). Kan Lich, from the Pako ethnic minority group in Thua Thien Hue, was the
Assistant Chief of the Armed Forces in A Luoi directing female guerrilla force at 18 years old. ‘In
1968 she was honoured for having participated in 49 battles, killing 150 soldiers and bringing
down an American Dakota plane’ (Women’s Museum).
81
General Tran Van Tra (1988) wrote of the contribution of the ‘long haired army’ (female cadres)
to the military success (cited in G. E. Dutton et al., 2012, p. 472).
82
It should be noted that in the post-1954 period, North Vietnam characterised war as against a
foreign enemy, largely, the Americans, whereas in South Vietnam it was portrayed as a civil
war. See Tài (2001)

209
recovery by 2017 to 69 (World Economic Forum, 2017). This disparity in
opportunities is mirrored in the public security arena.

Whilst this sector attracts the highest base salary of Government positions,
women’s access to this field is limited by the official policy of the Ministry of Public
Security which was last revised in 2016. The policy embedded a 10 per cent and
15 per cent cap on female entrants to public security tertiary institutions (Bộ Công
An, 2016, Article 3).83 These small percentages serve to institutionally enforce the
sector’s status as a masculine arena. Vietnam’s Labour Code (2012) and
associated regulations (Thông tư, 2013) prohibit employing women in some
occupations or undertaking specific tasks ‘to suit the health of female workers’
(Article 3.2.). Whilst some of the provisions aim to protect women during
pregnancy from strain or exposure to chemicals, which may cause them and their
unborn child harm, in practice the code entrenches gender stereotypes and limits
women’s access to work. But just as the landscape of policing is not static,
change is also imminent around employment. The Labour Code is currently under
revision with proposals to remove sections, which limit female participation in the
workforce, for example, the earlier retirement age which is between two to five
years earlier for women than men as outlined in Table 4 in Chapter 5.

This chapter explores historical events, folklore, policies and practices which
have influenced the position of women in Vietnam today. I highlight how women
are situated in the broader culture and through observation and interviews
explore the experiences and presentation of female police. I conclude by
summing up differences and similarities in the field of policing for women in
Vietnam compared to what has been documented in the global North.

83
Article 3 specifies a 10% limit on women in professional police and 15% limit for women in
political branches, engineering, logistics and foreign languages. Here, ‘professional police’ can
be understood to mean types of police (or security) work that are operational or considered
specialist. This thesis refers to 15% as the quota limit although it should be recognised that this
is an upper limit for women on entry and that different roles and functions may have more or
less than this in practice.

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Geography, gender and a touch of grace

Vietnam’s geography and political history have resulted in differences between

the country’s north and south – as described in Chapters 2 and 4.84 Northern
Vietnam has retained more cultural influences from neighbouring China. Northern
culture tends to reflect a Confucian style and demonstrates a form of
conservatism associated with hosting Government and Party offices. This
Confucian legacy is associated with masculinity given ‘its role as a source of
bureaucratic and political manpower’ (Tài, 2001, p. 182). The southern region
had greater exposure to other southeast Asian cultures, including some with more
matrilineal and matrilocal practises (ISDS, 2015; Mai Thi Tu & Le Thi Nham
Tuyet, 1978), and has retained patterns of consumption and trade that were
originally influenced by the French and Americans. The different characteristics
associated with the north and south of Vietnam have been described as
embodying masculine and feminine attributes respectively (Tài, 2001). Whilst this
characterisation provides a lens through which to understand the cultural
dissonances between north and south, it does not accurately describe the way
gender equality is enacted across the country. Until reunification in 1975, the
country’s approach to gender equality was split across north-south lines. The
Communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam established in the ‘Confucian’ north
in 1954 promoted gender equality in a structured way (see below), compared to
more amorphous liberal French and American influences in the south. It is
important to remember here that the interview data for this thesis was collected
in Hanoi and from interviews with people principally from the north.85

Vietnamese folklore is critical to the creation of the complex feminine ideal in both
the north and south of the country. Within this construction, geography is a central
metaphor. The tale of the ‘Founding Parents’ of ancient Vietnam, the Fairy Bird
Âu Cơ (mother) and Dragon King Lạc Long Quân (father) is one that illustrates
the history of Vietnamese constructions of gender roles. The story describes the

84
Although mentioning them can be politically sensitive because it detracts from the unified
vision authorities prefer to project
85
A similar study in Hồ Chí Minh City may reap different results and have an altered focus.
However, many of the documented prominent early women leaders were from the north given
that is where battles with Chinese invaders took place. Furthermore, in line with the view that
history is written from the perspective of the victors, anti-Communist women fighters may be
overlooked in the official history.
211
separation of the founding parents and equal division of their 100 children. The
separation, referred to as a ‘reconciled conflict of a divorce’ (Duong, 2001, p.
209), of the Fairy Bird and Dragon King has various interpretations in its re-telling.
Some versions reflect a matriarchal and feminist viewpoint of a mother – a
pioneer – taking charge of her offspring’s destiny, while others emphasise the
patriarchal and decision-making role of the Dragon King’s initiation of the divorce.
Other accounts tell how the Fairy Bird (reflecting the ocean) and the Dragon King
(reflecting the mountains) separated and took up residence in their opposite’s
realms. The story becomes an evocation of the creation of an equal, mutually
beneficial, but clearly delineated relationship between land and sea. Vietnamese
mythology features the country’s mountainous landscape and extensive
coastline. Through the association of motherhood with the ocean and fatherhood
with mountains, the feminine and masculine are represented as inherently distinct
and eternally inter-dependent. The masculine mountains resemble a static and
stable presence while the ocean’s ebb and flow is emblematic of the nature of
women’s equality in Vietnam. A sea that flows forward in times of national need
and foreign aggression (into the frontiers of battle) and recedes from the front as
danger wanes and women take up their role in the home which has the colloquial
designation, Nội Tướng, or General of the Interior (Tài, 2001, p. 174). This
undulation need not be characterised as a binary choice but rather the slow
movement of the tide and a recognition of multiple possibilities. Possibilities which
can be read as constituting the natural state of woman ranging from protector of
national security to primary nurturer of family and home.

According to Duong (2001), features of early Vietnamese folklore assign women

admirable traits in contrast to the Confucian model which was a strict patriarchy
where gender was distinguishable by sex category (attributed by male or female
sex organs); the possibilities for participation in society were distributed
accordingly. The key differences in attitude to women’s roles are demonstrated
in Vietnamese folklore that sees women as multi-dimensional and capable of
great feats of courage. Vietnam’s founding mother, Fairy Bird, characterises
indigenous Vietnamese womanhood with not only ‘strength, productivity,
creation, and repair, but also for the tragic and straining notion of self-sacrifice
and human struggle’ (Duong, 2001, p. 210). The folktale of Princess Tien Dung
212
(which came from the Hùng era between 2879 (29th century BC) to 258 BC)
represents indigenous women’s freedom of choice through her refusal to follow
convention and marry. Characteristics of resilience and perseverance of the
Vietnamese woman are recalled through generations with ‘The Story of the
Awaiting Wife’ (Duong, 2001). According to the legend, she waits so long on top
of a mountain gazing over the South China Sea for her husband to come home
from war, she turns into a limestone statue, demonstrating how the ‘strong will of
Vietnamese women could defeat time, capable of turning the perishable flesh and
bone into the more permanent formation of rock’ (Duong, 2001, p. 212). This
echoes the story of Penelope in Greek mythology (The Editors of Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 2014). Both myths suggest possibilities for women’s behaviour that
go beyond strictly gendered guidelines. Both the ‘awaiting woman’ and Penelope
are role models who demonstrated persistence and resilience and have
influenced strong female behaviour and attitudes for centuries.

Confucian influence

Despite various uprisings, there was an 800-year period of uninterrupted Chinese

rule which enabled entrenchment of Confucian values in Vietnam. Women’s
property rights were looked upon as a backward characteristic of the Vietnamese
society. In Hồng Đức thiện chính thư (Book of Good Government of the Hồng
Đức Era, 1471), the wording of an article for regulating moral codes indicates a
departure from a practice where new husbands would live with the woman’s
family for three years after marriage. Specifically, Article 6 states:

After the fiancé’s family has conformed to the demands of

the marriage rites and delivered the marriage gift, the
fiancée shall, on the wedding day, go immediately to her
husband’s house to live. No one shall adhere to the corrupt
ancient custom of compelling the husband to live and work
in the fiancée’s house for three years. (Nguyễn, Tạ, & Trần,
1987)

The Article’s reference to the ‘corrupt ancient custom’ implies contempt for the
indigenous practice. In more recent centuries, it has been more common for the
213
daughter-in-law to move in with her husband’s family as the likely result of
patrilineal and patrilocal requirements. The Book of Good Government of the
Hồng Đức Era, 1471, also stated:

Article 2: Duties of brothers toward one another: mutual

respect, love, and harmony. They should not listen to their
wives at the expense of (male) blood relatives; if they do,
they would attract shame on their family and shall be
punished. (cited in G. E. Dutton et al., 2012, p. 110)

Despite Confucian influences Vietnamese women have not remained silent. As

recently as the 18th century, Hồ Xuân Hương recited her poetry in public
denouncing male chauvinism (Duong, 2001). She felt that Confucian ethics were
in tension with the ‘indigenous culture that accorded women more freedom and
respect’ (Duong, 2001, p. 213). Earlier Vietnamese society saw examples where
the daughters of monarchs could reign and hold positions within the court (V. K.
Nguyen, 2002).86 In contrast, the Chinese system was a strict patriarchy where
gender was distinguishable by sex category (attributed by male or female sex
organs) and the possibilities for participation in society were distributed
accordingly.

Mobilising women: exploitation or empowerment?

Vietnam’s visual history is laden with images of female warriors and martyrs who
fought alongside men for the collective security of the nation. Amidst recurrent
foreign and civil wars, a confrontation that has not yet taken place in Vietnam is
a battle between the sexes (Duong, 2001). Duong (2001) argues that equality for
women has been only acceptable in terms of their contribution to nationalism or
the collective good. This theory has been demonstrated above; but there are
examples in the early years of the 20th Century where gender equality was part

86
In addition to Bà Triệu’s legacy, other women are recognised for their military prowess who
managed to be effective in battle notwithstanding gendered limitations including, the Trưng
Sisters (Hai Bà Trưng) who, in 40AD, fought against the Han Chinese with the elder sister
Trưng Trắc becoming Queen. In 1789, Bui Thi Xuan, the female General Commander-in-Chief
for King Quang Trưng, fought in a victory against 290,000 Qing Chinese invaders as head of
the elephant mounted troops. In more recent times, women have been heralded for their
leadership in the Communist-led campaigns against French, Japanese and American incursions
in museums in Hanoi and Hồ Chí Minh City (Tài 2001).
214
of the national project as determined via socialist objectives. The Vietnamese
Communist Party, established in 1930, founded the Women’s Emancipation
Association, later Hội Phụ nữ Việt Nam (Viet Nam Women’s Union). The
Women’s Union is a major branch of the Vietnam Fatherland Front whose charter
is as follows:

The Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) was established in

1930. As a socio-political organization, the VWU
represents, cares for and protects the legitimate and legal
rights and interests of women from all walks of life. The
VWU participates in building the Party and in State
management. The VWU’s rights and responsibilities are
regulated by the Constitution and laws of Vietnam (Vietnam
Women's Union, 2018).

During the campaign to unify Vietnam through military action in the south, the
Women’s Union mobilisation platform between 1955-1975 included ‘Three
responsibilities’ of its membership, ‘1. To take charge of industrial and agricultural
production, 2. To manage all family affairs; 3. To take up arms when necessary’
(Vietnam Women's Union, 2018).

The socialist work ethic championed by Hồ Chí Minh after the August Revolution
in 1945 expanded women’s participation in employment and public space (ISDS,
2015, p. 19), and saw a rejection of individuality associated with colonial French
bourgeoise. The pervasive inequality experienced by women around this time is
made explicit in the following statement by Hồ Chí Minh, ‘What equality really
means is a thorough-going and difficult revolution because contempt for women
dates back thousands of years…If this large-scale revolution is to be successful,
progress will have to be made in every field: political, economic, cultural and legal’
(Mai & Le, 1978 cited in Oxfam in Vietnam, 2016, p. 10). However, even though
women joined the labour force, they were still expected to fulfil their domestic
roles according to Confucian values (ISDS, 2015). A line of critique follows that
women were mobilised by Hồ Chí Minh and male strategists to help with the war
effort but the Party’s commitment to gender equality diminished after driving out
215
colonialists leading to criticism that women were exploited in times of national
need – a trend seen in other post-war and post-colonial societies (Duong, 2001).

Notwithstanding the overlap of wartime in the founding and early years of the
formal police organisation in Vietnam, some draw a distinction between modern
policing and military action. The interviews with police in this study highlighted
many of the competing dimensions of women’s roles, including roles ascribed to
them by men. One policeman said women’s roles in war and policing could not
be considered the same because the former demanded their involvement due to
the proximate sovereign threat whereas policing in peacetime does not warrant
the same response, adding that the ‘psychology and mindset’ is different (Police
officer, male). This argument seeks to explain differences between the sexes in
that the exceptional circumstances of wartime saw women embody an unnatural
role also reflected in the interpretation of the idiom Giặc đến nhà đàn bà cũng
đánh (When the enemy is at the gate, the woman goes out fighting) as not to be
confused with feminist empowerment (Tài, 2001, p. 174).

Whilst male strategists were criticised for demanding women’s contributions to

war, the Women’s Union has equally been under fire for their manoeuvring to
promote women’s standing. Women’s Union campaigns depict exemplary female
roles as being an 'Excellent contributor to the country, great homemaker', and
that there are 'Three traits of a good female worker and three home making
responsibilities to be fulfilled' (Cited in Oxfam in Vietnam, 2016, p. 21). Whilst
women’s war-time participation and access to labour has been uneven, their
fulfilment of their domestic charter has remained a constant feature of
Vietnamese culture. These two needs have sometimes led to women’s inclusion
in conflict roles where youth and fertility were exhausted for nationalist exigencies
(Turner Gottschang & Hao, 1998). In other word women’s ‘holy’ purpose of
producing children and homemaking has sometimes been sacrificed even to the
point of infertility borne out of martyrdom for country. This narrative underscores
the notion that Vietnamese womanhood as it relates to national survival
constitutes ‘self-sacrifice and human struggle’ (Duong, 2001, p. 210).

216
According to Swartz, ‘Individuals and groups draw upon a variety of cultural,
social, and symbolic resources in order to maintain and enhance their positions
in the social order’ (1997, p. 73). Thus, the legacy of Vietnam’s military victories
and women’s role in them are actions from which women can petition merit
alongside men. Some analyses of Women’s Union activities claim they have
fought for status (Chiricosta, 2010, p. 124) but not power, consequently
entrenching male authority through misplaced emphasis on women’s domestic
roles (Waibel & Gluk, 2013).

The Women’s Union sits under the umbrella of the Fatherland Front, which in turn
serves the Party. In theory the union’s branches, which make up a mass
organisation of many millions of women stretch down to the commune level and
their input feeds into executive resolutions. In reality, the political positioning of
the union, placed as it is within an unassailable hierarchy, primarily serves the
needs of the Party, signing off on decisions made at the top. The framework lends
itself towards a top-down approach to policy making. The national committee of
the Women’s Union takes charge of setting the agenda and ‘norms’ at the lower
levels – an approach criticised for dictating terms bereft of nuance essential for
meeting local needs (Waibel & Gluk, 2013).

The Women’s Union branch at the PPA celebrated International Women’s Day in
2017 with a campaign to promote the role of women in the Public Security Forces
as embracing, ‘discipline, creativity for national security, building happy families’
(People's Police Academy, 2017e). This is a continuation of the dual roles that
have marked public engagement for women serving both country and home.
Policewomen experience another duality. As compulsory members of the
Women’s Union they are subject to the dual subordination of the Government,
under the Ministry of Public Security, and the Communist Party, under the
Women’s Union. This means if they take an alternative view to the Party of issues
facing, and opportunities available, to women it may invite undesirable
repercussions. One officer while not speaking directly to the issue of gender said
a good leader must work towards change without creating disunity (Police officer,
male). This approach is likely to support the highly gendered status quo and
embed power dynamics in favour of men. In a culture which tries to avoid division

217
and appease the sensibility of others for the sake of harmony (as described in
Chapter 6), some instruments typically used to progress social change and draw
attention to unfairness may not be available. For example, industrial action or
some forms of awareness raising such as the ‘fledgling’ #MeToo movement (L.
Le, 2018) can be unsuitable or difficult to create social change in Vietnam. In this
climate it becomes socially or politically risky to pursue restructuring of gender
relations. Even a strategy of withdrawing unpaid labour at home to participate in
more paid work while potentially effective on an individual domestic level might
invoke broader social repercussions if women did not fulfil their gender role as
described below:

Women have so many things to do for the family that it is

hard to do the same job as men in the police. For example,
we have to take care of the children and the home. We have
to take care of our parents and our parents-in-law. Also,
women must pay attention to other extended family
relatives. If someone is in hospital, the women must visit
them. We have to take care of so many things because if
something happens to our family or we need support,
people will not help us if we have not helped them when
they needed it. People will think we are a bad wife and don’t
care for the family and so we will be excluded from the
others. (Police Academy staff, Female)

Here, women are attributed status not only through the ‘social accomplishment’
of fulfilling their gender role (Miller, 2002) of a ‘good’ wife, mother, daughter-in-
law etc, but also through their compliance and endorsement of Ministerial and
Women’s Union expectancies. Feminism’s ‘double bind’ (Carland, 2017) in the
Vietnamese context may be the trade-off between projecting a unified voice in a
one-party political system and giving voice to ‘not just intersecting but competing
forms of discrimination’ for individual women (Carland, 2017, p. 108).
Furthermore, in Vietnam’s pursuit of liberation from colonialism, Duong refers to
the conflation of nationalism, socialism and gender equality as the ‘fallacy of the
trio’ because it renders one form of oppression (colonialism) as warranting more

218
attention than another (localised patriarchy) (Duong, 2001, p. 283). Duong goes
on to say ‘Gender equality must mean more than equality in self-sacrifice for the
name of the country’ (2001, p. 284). As such, ‘The challenge of the Vietnamese
woman in the 21st century, therefore, is to combine international feminist
objectives with the authenticity of her diversity in advocacy for the goal of gender
equality in Vietnam’ (Duong, 2001, p. 326).

Whilst the Women’s Union has been criticised for emphasising women’s duties
in the home (Oxfam in Vietnam, 2016), some men interviewed in this study
asserted what they thought looking after the family was what was good for
women or what women wanted. The following quote delivers the burden of family
wellbeing squarely on the shoulders of women:

In Vietnam, women have the main job to look after family,

even if they’re good at their work. If their family is not happy,
it is not the thing that they want. Husbands in Vietnam often
don’t want their wife to work late, because in Vietnam,
taking care of the family is the main job of the woman.
(Police officer, male)

In a conversation over lunch, one policeman instructed me that leaving women

to manage the household tasks was, in fact, an act of respect. We ate a large
meal of snails, using toothpicks to flick their soft bodies out of their now redundant
armour, and chewing on the meaty thighs of barbequed frogs. Despite our best
efforts, when we had finished, there was plenty of food left over. My companion
suggested, rather than wasting it, that I take it home. Given he had paid for the
meal (approximately AUD$5), I thought he should give it to his family. However,
my companion said that ‘as a man’, he could not possibly insult his wife by taking
leftover food home because it would be impolite: ‘Vietnamese women love to
think they are the best cooks and prefer home cooked food to eating restaurant
food’ (Police officer, male). When I told him that, in Australia, a woman would be
very pleased if a man brought food home as it would make less work for her if
she was usually responsible for food preparation. He said it was acceptable for a
Vietnamese woman to accept food cooked by other women or if they specifically
ordered it from a restaurant for home delivery, but he was adamant that a ‘man’s
219
role was not to intervene in food!’. This view was confirmed by a policewoman
who described her sense of pride in domestic labour:

In each family, every woman is proud of doing housework,

any guest that enjoys the food cooked by the woman and
says it is delicious, there is a lot of pride for that woman.
Only some women feel disappointed about being limited to
housework. I like doing the housework. I cook, it’s my habit.
I love it. In Europe, it is different, some women don’t want
to do housework. Working in the PPA I feel stressed, but
when I go home, and my son is happy with dinner it makes
me feel very happy. In Vietnam, women don’t feel
disappointed about house work because they feel good
about being with their children. (Police officer, female)

From this perspective, the kitchen can represent a domain where women
exercise control, inhabiting a subject position from which they derive a sense of
authority eluding them in other decision-making spheres.87 Furthermore, while
Women’s Union’s campaigns claiming that home-making is the realm of women
have been described as unhelpful (Oxfam in Vietnam, 2016), it remains a
significant realm of influence. If it is the sole sphere where women exert tangible
influence, challenging this ideal carries with it the danger of losing already limited
status.

Whilst women continue to take on more responsibilities outside the home, they
might benefit from de-emphasising domestic tasks as ‘women’s work’. Gender
specialist, Dr Khuất Thu Hồng argues for a way forward, ‘I think it’s time to change
and to influence men. Policies, actions, programmes and interventions should
target men, forcing them to change their awareness, thoughts and behaviours.
Here, I would like to emphasise that support should continue to be given to
women, but men should also be “rescued”’ (Việt Nam News, 2016). This notion
of raising men’s awareness is used consistently in Western behaviour change

87
Whilst the burden of domestic roles is often associated with women’s subordination to a male
partner, Connell (1995) indicates women’s monopoly in this sphere can disrupt this power
structure, particularly in relation to child care.
220
programs – for example domestic violence prevention campaigns which focus on
male responsibility – but the idea of rescuing men is an interesting approach to a
contested space.

To say food preparation is the sole domain of women in Vietnam is also not
entirely true. It is possible for men to choose to inhabit the kitchen if it is something
they enjoy. In one case where I joined a meal with the relatives of a police officer:
the cook in charge of preparing the entire meal for a large group was a man in
his 30s. I watched him working quickly in the kitchen, smiling cheerfully,
explaining how he cooked for his family every day. Not only did he attest he was
a good cook, a claim endorsed by family onlookers, he was radiant whilst saying
he enjoyed his self-appointed post. Family members chuckled at the novelty of a
male being the family cook but at the same time appeared to thoroughly
appreciate his voluntary uptake of this responsibility. The novelty associated with
the male cook is an example of an exception proving the rule – that cooking is
usually women’s work.

Femininity and agency

Vietnamese women’s national dress, the áo dài, features prominently in official
and formal ceremonies (and informal settings), including at functions under the
MPS. Made of silk and in two parts, it comprises a long flowing dress with splits
to the waist up each side combined with long pants worn underneath. The pants
swirl voluminously at the ankles and are often in a contrasting colour for visual
effect. The long splits permit the front and back sections to flow independently
around the legs evoking a graceful and willowy feeling. A tightly fitted upper
section which clings to the ribs, chest, neck and shoulders reveals the feminine
frame. At police academy events including graduations, talent contests and other
performances, the áo dài is commonly worn by women who may also change into
and out of, the green police uniform. Female police students (and staff) draped in
colours dance with silk scarves and large feathered fans as well as marching or
mingling wearing the official ‘superman green’ (see more regarding this
description below) livery alongside their male counterparts.

221
On closer inspection, the male and female uniforms provide some clues about
the differences in the nature of police work for policemen and policewomen.
Students of both sexes must attain a basic standard of martial arts in order to
pass their training. 88 Women are at a marked disadvantage in this and other
physical tests due to the regulation one-inch heel on their shoes. Their male
counterpart’s shoes have a flat sole, better for running, maintaining balance, or
indeed, standing or walking for long periods; all activities routinely associated with
police duties, particularly those in the field. Whilst the regulation shoes are not
the reason for the differences between male and female police roles, they indicate
attitudes to women’s policing as a more sedentary occupation than men’s
policing. It is hardly surprising, in this context, that most policewomen undertake
far more administrative, desk-based functions rather than operational or
emergency responses. But, of course, the feminisation of police women is more
complicated than their standardised kit. Only two interview participants, both
women, said they wanted to become police so they could wear the uniform –
possibly because it gave them higher status in the community than women might
otherwise have; perhaps because it was associated with authority.

Issues of uniform are also complicated by the ways policewomen engage with
the way it is worn. In some instances, female police have a role in reinforcing
traditional ideas of femininity. During my time at the PPA, I trod many buildings,
hallways, stairwells, walkways, offices and dining areas taking photos where
possible of signage, slogans and images around the academy.89 I was particularly
struck by a framed series of photos in a stairwell stipulating the Ministry of Public
Security guidelines for male and female hair styles whilst in uniform. The
photographs showed the universal and characterless front, back and sides cut
for men, whilst women had the option of restraining their long hair in a bun pulled
back from the face or neatly trimmed sitting above the epaulettes on the
shoulders. The photographs and regulation hairstyles were not themselves

88
I observed students wear casual styled clothing rather than their uniform while doing martial
arts classes at the academy.
89
I did ask whether it was permissible to take photos and was encouraged to do so in regard to
official signage although other times it was discouraged.
222
noteworthy, but it was the non-compliance by women at the academy that I found
notable.

Women wore the regulation, though impractical, heeled police-issue footwear but
chose to flout the practical hairstyle rules and instead wore their hair long and
lithe, meandering down their backs, or with a fringe like a curtain lingering above
their eyes. This is entirely consistent with an endeavour to embrace femininity at
the same time as performing a non-traditional role. It is a containment strategy;
an attempt to maintain the status quo, to be police women but still women; to fit
into the male dominated police community without disruption, without
undermining society. It also represents an expression of individuality often
discouraged among military and para-military forces, not to mention a deliberate
act of rule-breaking by a minority risking punishment. Women, in their collective
though perhaps not conscious power, have weighed the risk and performed a
calculated action. In the broader context, this shared rebuff of official rules reflects
one of Kerkvliet’s three possibilities for state-society relations (2003). If the
academy is viewed as a ‘small society’, the women’s conduct represents a
bottom-up approach to policy making. A male student observed, ‘If someone
breaks a rule and doesn’t get punished for it, then more people will follow.
Eventually so many people are breaking a rule that it is impossible to enforce’
(Police student, male). When I pointed out my observation of women’s non-
conformance to another male student he posited an additional view:

…the proper hair style for women is so ugly. Who would want to
look like that? I went to the Royal [Thai] Police Cadet Academy
and the women there had their hair tied back so tightly it made
their faces ugly. I’m glad the women at the Academy don’t do
that.

(Police student, male)

A female student said women felt more comfortable when they could wear their
hair in a way that suited their face shape which meant a non-regulation style was
appropriate if so demanded by their physical criteria (Police student, female). The
emphasis on appearance is notable given the average age for women to get
married in Vietnam is 22 (25 for men) (ISDS, 2015, p. 63), thus, time spent living
223
on campus provides a prime opportunity for relationships to flourish. 90 The
academy is a crucial marriage market-place. 91
Marriage is a social
accomplishment in Vietnam with 90 per cent of people surveyed by ISDS having
been married at least once (ISDS, 2015, p. 63). Most marriages are initiated
based on love (80%), but importantly, 12 per cent of marriages occurred due to
people having reached an age at which it is deemed socially requisite to have
started a family (ISDS, 2015, p. 64). This is usually mid to late 20s and by this
age there is very strong pressure from family, society and even workplaces for
people to find a mate. This pressure coincides with a perception of female
students’ lack of focus on career aspirations due to the desire to find a husband.
A young male student put it this way:

It's interesting because most of my female friends already

have this idea that they're going to be settled and don't want
to climb that ladder. They talk about how they’re going to
get married and take care of the children. (Police student,
male)

Indeed, criteria for entry to the PPA includes being ‘no more than 20’ years old,
unmarried and without children which narrow the demographics of applicants and
their life stage (Bộ Công An, 2016, Article 6.2). A male officer suggested the
reason there were so few females pursuing police functions that requires hands
on investigation, arrest and interrogation was: ‘Where women become Criminal
Police, they may take on masculine traits. No man would want to marry a woman
like that’ (Police officer, male). This perception partially explains why the academy
turns a blind eye to hair infractions and why female police continue the pursuit of
this version of femininity despite the risk of punishment. For many young police
women, being worthy of the social accomplishment of a husband and family is
simply more important than breaking the institution’s rules.

Although most women’s tasks as police officers are administrative, the fact they
pursue employment within the security sector highlights women’s pragmatic

90
Despite regulations against such behaviour though reportedly usually overlooked.
91
The Circular on Regulations on Admission to the People’s Police (Bộ Công An, 2016, Article
6.2) stipulates students are not allowed to be married or have children.
224
pursuit of the tangible benefits of being in the police force. Police (and other
security functions) are the highest paid of all government departments in Vietnam.
Their salary and social security payments are dependable and good value
compared to many other jobs. For example, women working in family farms or
businesses are less likely to have comparable entitlements or may have to pay
them out of their own pockets (ISDS, 2015, p. 149). One officer described
women’s reasons for joining, or staying in, the police in this way: ‘Women do not
try to be the same as men, they don’t necessarily want to do the same work as
men, but they do want more equality in terms of higher salary’ (Police officer,
male). Concerns shaping women’s career paths are reflected below in response
to the question, ‘Would you like to do the same police work as men?’:

Of course, I don’t want to do similar work to men! It is very

dangerous and time consuming. Women in Vietnam not
only have to work but have to take time off to look after
family and children, so I won’t have time to do the work a
policeman does...According to tradition in Vietnam, the
main role of women is to take care of the family, working is
the role of men. (Police student, female)

Women were aware of the expectations of them at home and saw their limited
role in policing as an advantage in managing their overall workload. They did
however recognise that they had similar capabilities as men if given the
opportunity:

At first, I would have loved to be a detective or investigator

of criminals. But, after a time of working and experience and
family guidance working in traffic or administration, I think
even for men working with criminals is very stressful. It is
common sense in Vietnam that men do hard work and
women do easier work, so we feel very grateful for that.
(Police student, female)

In Vietnamese culture, the men can choose to do

housework or not. But the female police have to spend
more time to work at home and [this] is why they do not take
225
 part in serious crime [duties]. If there was more support at
home, many Vietnamese women would do as the men do.
(Police officer, female).

Women participants demonstrated that working in administration has its

advantages. They are adept at using the flexibility it provides especially in relation
to parenting responsibilities. One example is being able to leave work to pick up
children from school. Here, encouragement of women’s domestic role at a society
level led to different standards and expectations associated with women’s
policing. A male officer said his female colleagues refused certain tasks if they
interfered with family obligations, for example, going to teach a short course
outside of Hanoi, but added that ‘their husbands would not allow it’ indicating
restrictions on women’s choices (Police officer, male) This statement is also
indicative of a perception that women were able to turn down undesirable tasks
with an irrefutable excuse. This was linked to the notion that in some cases
females receive preferential treatment, for example:

Female police are different from the male police at the PPA.
The females receive encouragement from the security
industry, for example, we receive a small amount of money
for buying bras or towels, small benefits. Vietnam has many
special days for women, but not men. Females also get a
gift from the department on their birthday, but not men.92
(Police officer, Female)

Following a lecture I delivered at the Police Academy in July 2017 on the topic of
this chapter, a female student approached me and said, ‘I joined the police
because I want a stable job, so I can get married and have a family. I don’t want
to do police work outside the office. It is not the reason why I became a police
officer’. The student considered work as an integrated part of her life. Work should
be carefully pursued based on how it related to and fitted in with other life choices.
In other words the job was important for its contribution to her whole life and not
as an end in itself. Given the age limits on police applicants (no older than 20),

92
Vietnam celebrates International Women’s Day (March) and Vietnam Women’s Day on 20
October – the date the predecessor of what is now the Women’s Union was founded in 1930.
226
women in particular appeared to be considering the impact of employment
conditions on their future family responsibilities whilst still in high school. Whilst
this may seem early to the western reader, it is only really since the 1960’s that
marriage in the West has routinely happened over 30. And while the importance
of marriage relates of course to the couple who are marrying, young or old,
marriage in Vietnam, is also significant to a broader, ever-present network
comprising family, community, work and society. These multiple arenas mean
that young people have to meet a continuum of needs, not only their own, and
this is a significant pressure amid the many other pressures of becoming a police
officer.

There are however some outlets at the PPA for the young people to let off steam.
At the academy, men show off their talents through singing, dancing and playing
in a band. Competitions for women place greater weight on appearance and
comportment, with women gaining recognition or status from talent and beauty
contests often held in the confines of the university. One example is the ‘Excellent
Local Women Cadre’ contest (Hội thi Cán bộ Phụ nữ cơ sở giỏi) (People's Police
Academy, 2015a) which aims to improve communication skills and confidence,
opportunities for development.93 This activity was organised by the Academy’s
branch of the Women’s Union and described as a ‘political activity’ with ‘practical
experience’. The contenders were judged over four rounds in the following
categories: 1) Graceful Women - Self-Introduction; 2) Self-confident Women –
Learning knowledge; 3) Talented Women – Talent; and, 4) Shining Women –
Eloquence.94 In 2016, another beauty contest titled, ‘Charming of Criminal Justice
2016’, judged female contestants on their áo dài performance, (Western style)
evening gown parade, talent and eloquence. This event was reported as a tribute
to the PPA on its 48th anniversary and ‘to honor the beauty, elegance, confidence,
bravery [and] knowledge of female students of [the] Criminal Justice system of
the PPA’ (People's Police Academy, 2016). But not all stage performances by

93
Contests are held for different activities and can include staff and/or students.
94
1) Graceful Women - Self-Introduction (Phụ nữ duyên dáng - Tự giới thiệu); 2) Self-confident
Women - Learning knowledge (Phụ nữ tự tin - Tìm hiểu kiến thức); 3) Talented Women – Talent
(Phụ nữ tài năng - Năng khiếu); and, 4) Shining Women – Eloquence (Phụ nữ tỏa sáng - Hùng
biện).
227
women involved the demure áo dài, refined evening gown, or, sanctioned
uniform.

Prior to their big day, 2016 PPA graduates showcased their talents to families
and friends whom had travelled from across Vietnam’s northern provinces to the
capital. The opening included a video on the history of the police, and a
production including in-uniform patriotic performances, as well as solo and group
musical and dance compositions. About midway through the evening, a troop of
young women emerged on stage dancing hip-hop style to the 2014 song ‘Bang
Bang’, a music chart topper by a female trio comprised of American pop artists,
Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, and Britain’s Jessie J., all renowned for their
skimpy outfits and evocative swagger. Two of the three female police students
on stage sported short black hotpants, trendy white sneakers and a combination
on top of black T-shirts and flannel shirts, the latter having churned through the
20 years or so fashion cycle to be in vogue again. Although falling short of the
sexualised performances of the song’s original vocalists, the students’ dancing
was redolent of the suggestive style imported from ‘Western’ influences. Whilst
senior PPA officers were at the ceremony, it did not have the formality of the
following day when the VIP and Ministerial guests were present. The event was
an opportunity for students to demonstrate their skills, and maybe even sense of
humour, as well as their loyalty and professionalism.

As we have seen, the Academy is a place of multiple uses and desires. It serves
as site of paramilitary discipline, and as host to a large community of youngsters
who engage in recreational activities to while away their five years living on
campus. The night before graduation ceremonies are an outlet for some of this
energy and enthusiasm. The informal mood was set by a senior officer who
opened proceedings, as apparently he usually does annually, with his own
rendition of a Vietnamese song. This was greeted with much applause and
encouragement from the students. The more relaxed air of the night-before
graduation granted flexibility for a range of student performances, including the
semi-seductive one just described. It is not surprising that female students might
explore diverse forms of expression – within certain parameters – as do students
of other universities exposed to worldwide trends seen online or on television.

228
Whilst performing ‘Bang Bang’ may be read as contemporary female expression,
or even revolutionary in the context of the PPA, when considered in a framework
of standard female roles it is entirely in line with the normative ideas of femininity
reinforced by the ‘Excellent Local Women Cadre’ and the possibilities enabled for
female policing in Vietnam.

Motherhood, iced tea and the death penalty

It was a hot day when I was sipping iced tea and interviewing Quynh.95 We had
two fans to keep us cool, one fixed above us on the wall, and the other on the
floor beside our chairs. Quynh had worked at a busy police station in Hanoi and
I was excited at her enthusiasm to help me understand more about policing in
Vietnam. Equally, she saw me as a useful resource; the first thing she asked me
was why do foreign tourists make false reports to police about having their
belongings stolen? She was grinning, but with her eyes fixed on me for a
response and her brow furrowed, I felt the question was underlined by a strong
sense of annoyance. She went on to explain that in many cases, tourists would
report their mobile phone or other items stolen, but when the police checked the
CCTV cameras they saw the story could not have taken place as described and
was, thus, a fabrication. At the thought of being lumped in with these tourists
solely on the basis that I, too, was a foreigner, I felt my cheeks flush in
embarrassment. There was an unspoken accusation I could be a criminal
sympathiser due to my shared ‘foreigner’ status with these liars. In that moment,
the impact of generalised microaggressions of real discriminations towards
minorities at home in Australia was not lost on me. Still, I offered up the first thing
that came to my mind. Perhaps the true targets of the deceit were insurance
companies who often compensated travellers for items only if they were stolen,
and only if accompanied by a police report. So it was quite likely that the tourist
had lost their phone, iPad, camera or valuable whatever just not necessarily in
the way they were reporting. I queried whether her concern was due to the impact
this fraudulent behaviour had on crime rates? Quynh confirmed it was her
concern explaining that it made the police look like they were not able to

95
A pseudonym
229
adequately control crime. The conversation highlighted the importance of
statistics as a common global measure of police performance.

During my meeting with Quynh, she regularly returned to the theme that she was
worried about her six-year-old daughter: that her health was not good, that she
could do better in school, that she was very shy. I wondered whether Quynh was
overly worried about her daughter’s shyness because her own personality
seemed quite the opposite. Quynh was confident, engaging and spoke
authoritatively about her police work. Her anxiety and apprehension over her
daughter’s wellbeing demonstrated a frailty and it felt important that she could be
vulnerable with me and significant that vulnerability related to her mothering and
not her police work. Other than to reassure her that she was a good mother, I
did not know what else to say and we continued to discuss policing, sipping our
iced tea, comparing ideas between my policing experience in Melbourne and hers
in Hanoi. We inevitably arrived at the subject of illicit drugs. Quynh presented it
as one of the biggest problems facing local communities. She was concerned
about both trafficking and ‘drug addiction’. She saw that drug traffickers were
trying to prop up their trade by preying on vulnerable children who were perceived
as willing to partake in risky behaviour. She understood those already addicted
to be thieves, murderers and perpetrators of family violence. When Quynh said
she thought Vietnam should legislate the death penalty to execute people for all
drug offences I was taken aback. So much so, I had to ask her to repeat herself
and explain it to me again to ensure I had accurately understood her. She said
that drugs caused so many problems for families and the community. She was
disappointed the prescribed quantities for drug possession were so high before it
was possible to institute a charge that might carry a death sentence. Despite her
disappointment, she was matter of fact. She explained it to me in geo-political
terms: more and more amphetamines and synthetic substances were being
trafficked into Vietnam from China, drug addiction in Vietnam was fuelling crime
but due to political commitments to human rights treaties and the influence of
America, Vietnam was no longer able to execute people without intense
international scrutiny. Vietnam’s status as a ‘small country’ rendered it easily
subject to pressure by the Americans to follow their version of human rights. She
lamented that China was a bigger country and was able to function independently
230
without submission to United States demands and could, therefore, execute more
drug criminals. This was another example of how I found police in Vietnam ready
to view themselves in relation to others, as an occupation, organisation or state.

Justifications for increasing women’s participation in policing and other arenas of

political influence have often been on the basis that women are more caring,
compassionate and sympathetic towards vulnerable people than their male
counterparts (Heidensohn, 1992; S. E. Martin, 1980; S. Miller, 1999). Quynh’s
endorsement of the death penalty for drug crimes struck me as a deviation from
this stereotype. However, as our discussion unfolded, her insight became more
nuanced. For example, despite having frequently used the term drug ‘addicts’,
she pointed out that an alternate phrase – ‘people who use drugs’ – should be
used in a nod towards changing lexicon to de-stigmatise the drug using
population. In a crude attempt to synthesise our conversations about concern for
crime rates, the death penalty and her sensitivity to parlance referencing drug
users, I asked if the police (including herself) were happy when a drug user died
from an overdose because it meant they could not commit any more crime? She
laughed and said, ‘No way! We believe that each person can stop using drugs
and become normal citizens and be good for the community’. This view underpins
an approach to social control that individuals can be educated, rehabilitated or
reformed.

The ‘ideal’ green superMAN

The uniform of the Vietnamese police is green because the colour is associated
with justice and peace. Colloquially, the police are referred in the singular as siêu
nhân xanh (green superman), a descriptor invoking imagery of a superhero,
usually male, with a hulking frame and muscles. Police worldwide have used
physical attributes, typically height, weight and strength, as criteria for selecting
suitable candidates for the task of policing; in some cases, they have been
revised in recognition they can be exclusionary of good candidates. Despite this,
the belief that physical strength is a prerequisite for policing in Vietnam
underpinned arguments from officers in this study (both men and women) as to
why women’s participation should be limited to 15 per cent. The emphasis on
physicality also dissuaded some young men from pursuing certain policing roles,
231
for example, one student said, ‘I’m very thin and my strength is not good. It would
pose difficulties for me if I worked with criminals outside [the police station]’
(Police student, male). Whilst compulsory martial arts training obliged minimum
standards for strength and agility through participation, height and weight
requirements are stipulated in a Circular from the MPS which necessitates
policemen be 1.64cm tall or above and weigh 48kg or more, and policewomen
must be 1.58cm tall or above and weigh 45kg or more (Bộ Công An, 2016).96 A
female student described her struggle at having to gain 3kg to meet the minimum
weight requiring her to eat a lot more than she would otherwise, and, in spite of
the fact she faced a career demanding a level of physical exertion associated
with clerical work.

The caricature of superhero police officers was also reflected in descriptions of

police work as being action-oriented and requiring ‘bravery’. Thus, specialised
areas in Criminal Investigations and the Criminal Police which had high levels of
interaction with criminals, were perceived as more dangerous and were regarded
as high-status roles. The degree of danger meant these roles were suitable for
not only men, but brave, strong men. For example, a male student opted to study
a major which did not involve confronting the public saying, ‘Combatting crime
requires bravery and I admit I don’t have that and it’s not suitable for me’ (Police
student, male). The social artefact of ‘the manly man and the womanly woman’
(Bourdieu, 2001, p. 23) limits both men and women’s participation in policing and
more tightly defines and circumscribes their roles (Chan et al., 2010, p. 426).
Another male student said he enjoyed going on patrol by motorbike with a
colleague to search for criminals and suspicious people. He preferred this type of
work because ‘going on patrol means I don’t have time to get stuck with
paperwork and I get to do real police work and I have a higher chance of
preventing crimes’ (Police student, male). The sentiment that ‘real’ police work
entails being outside and on patrol as compared to being inside and doing
paperwork reflects S. E. Martin’s (1999) point which divides tasks into masculine
and feminine, with the former eliciting higher status and prestige among police.
Whilst the purported masculine domain of outside police work is also in reference

96
Students from ethnic minorities in each gender can be 02 cm shorter in height and 02 kg less
in weight than the standard
232
to the potential for danger, in Vietnam, women are also capable in undertaking
physically demanding tasks. In addition to their wartime contributions, in everyday
life in Vietnam, women do a lot of outdoor physical labour, especially in
agriculture (ISDS, 2015) rendering the physical requirements associated with
masculine identity as essential to protect national security more myth than
necessity.

A consistent theme among interviewees both male and female was the
recognition that men and women are different. The term ‘limitations’ was used in
almost every interview to describe women’s capacity, it was never used to refer
to men. This language makes explicit the perception that the domain of policing
is a masculine enterprise: whilst women can play a role, their role is one of deficit
compared to men. Limitations were described as both physical and
psychological. Given the entrance exam grade was a key determinant of entry,97
98
if women and men perform equally well in these exams, women admitted to the
police would have to have achieved higher grades to fit into the smaller allocation
of positions for their sex category (at the time of fieldwork in 2016 this was
reported to be a score over 28.5/30 compared to males 27/30). Consequently,
limitations in terms of intellect were never mentioned. In fact, it was widely
acknowledged that women who gained entry to the PPA were academically
superior. Instead, emphasis for women’s unsuitability was located in their lack of
physical strength, and whilst psychological limitations were noted, it was often in
reference to women being distracted by their family obligations rather than an
incapacity to carry out the work. Some participants mentioned women were more
emotionally fragile than men, which meant they were not mentally equipped to
cope with the danger or trauma of policing (Police student, male). In summary,
the ‘ideal’ police officer was someone who embodied strength over smarts.
Although office work was regarded as of lower status than ‘outside’ police work,
it did have its advantages for women, and indeed, those men who did not want
to engage in the more public facing police roles, for example:

97
After being screened for moral, political and physical suitability. See Chapter 5.
98
Although it was not discussed specifically in terms of gender or the examination, several male
interviewees indicated that the recruitment and selection process could be undermined through
granting of favours. As an outsider it was difficult to probe this in detail and self-censorship for
reasons outlined in Chapter 4 was of concern here.
233
 For administrative work, it can be hard to get a job because
they have high standards, but it’s in the office and so many
people apply for that career because it is an easier job for
the same pay. (Police student, male)99 100

One student reflected on what she saw as male perceptions of women in her
class of Traffic Police. She said some men thought women should not choose
Traffic Police as their major because there were other ‘more suitable’ police jobs
for women such as Administration, Social Order policing and the English
language major. On the other hand, some men appreciated learning from women
and their support towards their academic studies. The student said she thought
women’s (generally) superior academic ability meant it encouraged men to do
better in order to compete with them and get better grades overall, effectively
pulling men upwards to a higher standard (Police student, female). Sometimes
being the only female in a class had advantages. One student was pleased her
male counterparts didn’t expect her to clean or take responsibility for unlocking
the door to the classroom. She described how her classmates recognised her
notetaking skills and sought her help after classes to exchange information to
help their study. Another female student said, ‘Females are rarer than males in
the police and therefore, are more respected by men and cherished’. Whilst both
male and female police referred to physical strength as an important capability in
policing, there were perceptions of differences between female and male
attributes, for example:

Females are softer than males and they can fulfil a task.
Maybe the male needs to be stronger, but females can
solve problems that require communication and emotional
intelligence….I feel that women are more sensitive than
men and they can resolve a psychological problem faster
than men. In some cases, maybe a female can reach the,
approach the issue and can be gentler, then a female can

99
Other police mentioned ‘outside’ work gave more opportunities for informal income through
more interaction with the public
100
Some administrative roles where men are more represented include overseeing the
household registration system which involves interaction with the public and possibilities for
informal income through payments to ‘speed up’ processing of documents.
234
 connect better than men and can get and give sympathy to
people... Women play an important role in crime
prevention… Women’s skills in communication can prevent
a situation from getting worse. A female officer has
influence in domestic violence they get information faster
than men. (Police student, female)

Whilst some other interviewees were supportive of women in policing, there were
still some perceived limitations which were both practical and cultural as follows:

The majority of work of a police officer has to do can be

done by a female as good as a male. Only minor parts of
work which requires a good physical state and when a
sudden situation happens a female is not capable. (Police
student, female)

I don’t think people have to be tall and muscular to be

police, but they must meet requirements of height and
strength. Some specific tasks of police, for example, anti-
drug and criminal police can require more muscular
strength (Police student, male)

One female student claimed males and females were equally capable, ‘If a man
can do it, a woman can do it’. In contrast, a male interviewee indicated going to
crime scenes may be psychologically difficult for women and so is not suitable for
women. One policewoman said more women in traffic police was ‘to create a
good image with foreigners and local people’ although said if a ‘man came with
bad behaviour’ towards a female traffic officer then her male colleagues ‘must
have an immediate reaction [to protect her] otherwise the male officer will feel
shame in his mind because he couldn’t react immediately’. This meant that
protecting the male ego became as important for the female policewoman as
doing her actual job. The gendered communication and people management
skills highlighted earlier in this section were seen as inherent to female policing
and a core skill for their success.

235
Promotions, paperwork and progression through the ranks

Career pathways in policing had a range of bottlenecks for women. Initially, an

applicant must seek endorsement from their local police station to have their
family and criminal history checked and to ensure they have the correct political
credentials. Recruitment policies favour applicants who are the offspring of police
or public security officers through provision of extra points on the entrance scoring
system.101 Some research participants said it was easier to pass this process if
you already had family who were in the police, but being female was a barrier
because decision makers at the provincial level were also limited by the 15 per
cent quota (Police officer, female). Due to the strong familial culture, many police
(male and female) expressed a desire to return to their home province or city after
completing their training in Hanoi. Since women police were seen as primarily
appropriate to fill administrative roles, local police may be reluctant to forward
their applications to the next stage out of concern that in four to five years too
many female police graduates may be allocated to return to their home town.
There was a fear that accepting too many women could lead to a dearth of
returnees qualified to fulfil ‘real’ policing duties. In other words, women could
potentially be taking the jobs of men and crime might get out of control. This
situation is further complicated because the centralised planning model,
reminiscent of socialist allocation, requires flexibility and adaptation. Training
takes 4 years, meanwhile circumstances of the student or the police station may
change.

Women’s limited opportunity to engage in real police work also limits their
prospects for promotion. If women are largely represented in office-based work,
it reduces their visibility and potential for relationship building necessary for
career advancement. Also, if women were not working in public-facing positions

101
Article 11.b) Priority Score: Along with the implementation as stipulated by Ministry of
Education and Training, the Ministry of Public Security object plus point priority admission into
the following points:
- Plus 2.0 (two) points to the offspring of the police officers on the payroll (working, retired);
employee labour contract does not specify the duration of the People's Police and Public
Security officers have early retirement, transfer industry, demobilized or died but continuous
working time in the police for 15 years above.
- Plus 1.0 (a) points to the offspring of the head and deputy head of the Commune Police are
working, school, deputy commune police chief retired, died, transferred but joint working time
police keep communal forces from 15 years or more. Heads, director of police units and local
responsible for the accuracy of this object.
236
it may limit their capacity to earn additional income crucial for securing support
for sought after positions. The association of higher status to roles that involved
interaction with ‘criminals’ with greater risk of encountering danger and potential
use of force or coercion also inhibited women’s access to promotion. Police
engaged in crime-fighting found it easier to demonstrate competencies to be
considered for promotion. A female student said it was difficult to be promoted
because some methods of police work were ‘more suitable for men’, for example,
surveillance roles of male suspects often involved covertly pursuing them into
male dominated domains such as some restaurants or bia hơi (small bars or beer
halls with cheap draft beer) where women would be easily exposed. In addition,
if the surveillance activity turned into an opportunity for arrest requiring physical
strength or coercive force, a female would be at a disadvantage. However,
women police could work covertly when investigating ‘prostitution crime’ because
they could be more easily disguised (Police student, female). She also said that
more women entering into traffic policing outdoors would give female police the
chance to prove their abilities compared to men (Police student, female).

Even where women took on male-dominated police tasks, they accepted they did
not do the same work as similarly trained males. Whilst this was described
positively with respect to the short-term benefits, the lack of engagement and
visibility may limit career advancement over the long term. For example, one of
the seven females out of 64 people studying Criminal Policing, said during her
internship at a police station the senior staff were ‘caring’ towards the interns,
‘especially the females’ (Police student, female). This preferential treatment was
explained as being due to ‘limitations’ of women which meant they spent more
time doing paperwork and were given ‘priority’ to only work official hours and
could go home on time. whereas the male students would have to ‘guard and
patrol at night’ (Police student, female). She went on to say traffic policing ‘needs
more men because it has outdoor work and that women in traffic policing only
serve as document writers’ and work in the office. Whilst she looked forward to
the diversity of the role of Traffic Police, she said she didn’t want to work on the
street for long and eventually would prefer office work.

237
As police are promoted, the requirement for physicality on the job diminishes
because management tends to be more desk-based than field-based. Within a
framework that emphasises women’s strengths in administration it is possible that
moving into management might present a real opportunity for female police. The
playing field could conceivably level in management and women might find
themselves equally suitable for promotion. However, as women are promoted to
higher ranks they face a different type of masculinity which Silvestri (2007) has
referred to as ‘smart macho’. Silvestri (2017) notes that in Western developed
countries increased focus on management and productivity can disadvantage
women where in a competitive environment, women’s commitment to work may
be questioned. This is because they may be unable to devote similar hours
alongside men to be seen as ‘present and ever-available’, and thus, not an ‘ideal’
worker (Silvestri, 2017, p. 297). In 2017, a mere 5 per cent of students
specialising in High-tech crime at the PPA were women despite perceived
physical limitations being irrelevant for this skill set. Even in managerial roles,
women may experience disadvantage as exemplified by this quote:

The guy who got the position of …was unsuitable. The

female applicant was definitely more qualified than the guy
who got the job. He lacked the basic skills for the job and
was not a good leader. I don’t know why he was promoted
over her, but it probably had something to do with her being
a woman. It is upsetting because it is obvious people aren’t
promoted based on their qualifications and after a while it
was clear he wasn’t even interested in the job. (Police
student, male).

There are other examples where being female in a managerial environment

attracted negative capital. According to a female lecturer the two highest status
jobs in Vietnam, are teacher and police officer. Working as a police trainer
combines these into one proud position that female officers may aspire to, as it
is primarily indoors and relatively safe work. Some officers are required to travel
to teach in rural areas and this was seen as incompatible with women’s domestic
duties (Police officer, male) and there are perceptions of women being

238
overlooked for promotion due to them being perceived as stepping outside the
feminine realm (Police officer, male). This results in barriers for women’s
promotion even in the Police Academy. Despite this potential for discrimination
the Academy remains a site where women are perceived to be more likely to be
promoted than outside it.

We [in Vietnam] are doing very well in gender equality, but

police have specific criteria and some jobs can’t have that
balance. In police we have to meet requirements of
strength, time and strong physical health but if you’re a
woman you have to be a mum and are so busy and it is
difficult for her to do what is required. However, in PPA it
doesn’t have the need for strength, so women numbers are
higher. There are so many women they can become a
scientist, to become Vice President of PPA, but in future
maybe. (Senior PPA officer, male)

Vietnam’s National Strategy on Gender Equality 2011-2020 (Nguyễn Tấn Dũng,

2010) seeks to close this gap through increasing women’s political participation,
access to finance and employment, education – especially tertiary level, access
to healthcare, reducing gender bias in media representations, reducing gender-
based violence, and gender mainstreaming issues in legal documents. The
strategy, endorsed by Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, also aims to reduce sex
discrimination in the education sector by ‘Increasing the proportion of Master
Degrees held by women to 50 per cent, and PhDs to 25 per cent by 2020’. For
police, women’s retirement age is between two and five years earlier than men
depending on rank (National Assembly, 2014). The shortened career span
coupled with the fact women take time out to have children, often means
investment in women’s education is not prioritised and subsequently limits their
prospects for promotion (ISDS, 2015).

Despite the structural limitations on women’s recruitment and pathways for

promotion, there were ways women could pursue non-traditional roles. Some
interviewees said that while women had limitations, that they had opportunities
similar to men if they tried hard enough. For example, ‘It depends on [the female
239
police officer’s] passion. If they are really passionate, it is likely they can make it
work’ (Police student, male). A female student said she applied for the Criminal
Police Major, but she was allocated to Administration. Whilst completing her first
year of study in her allotted field she found a male student who would swap with
her: the swap was approved by Academy staff, and she was able to pursue her
preference. Whilst these examples demonstrate women can pursue different
career avenues, these efforts centred around an individual’s persistence rather
than a proactive strategy.

Views on official policy and women’s integration into policing

Interviewees were aware they would be asked about the role of women in the
police and may have primed their views and prospective responses prior to
interview. Anticipation of questions regarding official policy, specifically, whether
the Circular on Regulations for recruitment for the People's Public Securities (Bộ
Công An, 2016) limiting women’s participation in policing could affect the
openness of dialogue given criticism of government policy may elicit rebuke. The
fact that enforcement of laws or policies regarding commentary on Government
in Vietnam is uneven means responses can be determined by an individual’s
analysis of risk and perceptions of agency. There were differences of opinion
regarding women’s participation in policing among female students, for example,
‘No, there are enough female police. It would not serve any better to have more
women’, and, ‘Yes, we should encourage more women to join the police’. A
female student was asked if she thought the 15 per cent quota for women should
be increased. She responded, ‘No. There is enough quantity. It is the regulation’.
But, when asked if the policy may change to include more women in the future
she responded, ‘Yes, I think it will expand.’ This draws attention to methodological
issues where a one to two-hour interview with police staff or students in Vietnam
may not provide the best circumstances in which to elicit possible disagreement
or even critical engagement regarding official policy with any nuance. However,
there were a range of topics where expressing discontent with the status quo was
possible. When asked whether the regulation limiting women cadets to 15 per
cent should be changed, a female student exclaimed:

240
 Of course! [Do you know if many others agree with you?]
From my point of view, I would love to have more women to
join the PPA but there are not many who agree with me.
Many leaders of the PPA think the PPA needs less women.
(Police student, female)

Other responses deferred to authorities about what was considered appropriate

apportioning of men and women in policing. For example, two male students
stated, ‘It depends on the decision of the Minister. I can’t answer this question’,
and, ‘I think 15 per cent [women police] is enough. Most women probably do the
job of administration. In future, I don’t know if it will go up or down. It will be a
decision for the Ministry of Public Security’. A senior police officer at the national
level drew attention to the quota for police recruitment – affirming it the realm of
higher-ups – compared to the internal allocation of officers, he said, ‘I do agree
with the 15 per cent quota because it belongs to the Ministerial rate for having
enough force personnel. I don’t know about other departments, but we have 30
per cent women in the anti-narcotic department. We have undercover officers,
investigative and technical officers. Many females do undercover work buying
drugs from smugglers’.

Some difficulties in analysing interview responses, particularly from women,

relate to potential difficulties for individuals to articulate their views within socially
acceptable responses. For example, people may try to adapt to or conform to fit
in, rather than take a view that might set them apart from others. However, this is
not necessarily true as I found when I gave a lecture to a class of 50 staff and
students at the PPA in 2017. One female student stood up in front of the whole
group and spoke in support of women’s abilities to be police, indeed, she said
women could be more capable than men. In contrast, another female spoke to
me quietly after the presentation and indicated she did not want to do police work
other than office-based tasks. That one student made a declaration to a large
group with a view to dispute gender roles in policing shows conformity can be
challenged. Being supportive of change to the quota on women’s entry to policing
could be seen as challenging authority and disrespecting elders. In most cases,
the interpreters were male of varying seniority (students and academy staff), it is

241
not clear what impact this had on female interviewees openness. In cases where
women did object to the quota, the interpreters were male and so it is unclear if
male interpreter’s presence influenced responses. Interviewees’ endorsement of
the 15 per cent quota for women seemed to stem from a view that women do not
have the physical strength or time (due to family obligations) to be police.
Restructuring how police organisations worked to better accommodate women
was not generally seen as an option despite a female officer saying, ‘Everyone
wants a higher position in society. Many are active, open, and, have ambition to
get a higher position’.

Conclusion

The field of policing in Vietnam has many differences from the major studies in
the global North where policing emerged as a male dominated occupation under
stable governance. Vietnam’s protracted history of colonisation has given rise to
mythologies and examples of women leaders engaged in violent battle as well as
more recent roles demanding physical strength, endurance and mettle
demonstrated in the American War. Vietnam has documented role models who
demonstrate that women are physically capable of the physical demands of
protecting society. The changing field from war to peace has seen a change in
attitude to women warriors. During peacetime the attitude is that women in
Vietnam should not be burdened with domestic policing as national security is no
longer in peril. Conversely, in the West, it was during peacetime that women
fought for inclusion among the ranks of police. Whilst the struggle for inclusion
alongside men was imperfect, it was assisted because western women had
recourse to the law to litigate against discrimination (J. Brown, 1997). Connell
and Pearse (2015) note the extent to which a localised social institution allows
for gender expression may be variable. Thus, the avenues available for women
in Anglo-American policing may not be used by policewomen in Vietnam. Local
approaches are adapted to local needs and Vietnamese women may manoeuvre
to positions of power in a manner that does not cause conflict or disharmony to
the gender hierarchy. For example, to rail against men’s domination within certain
police functions could be counter-productive where a woman could be seen to
take on masculine traits rendering her unmarriageable.
242
The field for policing in Vietnam, including official policies for women’s recruitment
also differ from the global North. The 15 per cent quota acts as a ceiling which
makes it more competitive for women applicants is a departure from trends in the
West where some forces are pursuing targets of 50 per cent female recruitment.
In many cases, these targets are difficult to meet. In contrast to the cap on women
in Vietnam, the nature of specialised police work may mean more women are
attracted to policing because the reasons for joining do not rely on one’s
acceptance that operational work involving shift work and street patrol are not
likely to be confronted.

Susan Martin (S. E. Martin, 1980) drew a distinction between POLICEwomen and
policeWOMEN: the former reflects how women try to fit in by adopting
occupational role norms in line with the male dominated sub-culture, whereas the
latter term accentuates ‘WOMEN’ through capitalisation to emphasise the
contours (or limitations) of orthodox female possibilities (Rabe-Hemp, 2009). In
this study, most female interviewees expressed that they did not want to be
treated the same as male officers or do the same work as men. Consequently,
women did not have to compete with men and did not see themselves in a manner
which accords with Martin’s description of POLICEwomen – the adoption of
masculine characteristics to facilitate fitting in. Martin’s second category,
policeWOMEN, reflects the emphasis the female police placed on accountability
to their gender stereotype by prioritising current or future family commitments.
Rabe-Hemp (2009) referred to the possibilities of alternating between
POLICEwomen and policeWOMEN depending on stage of career, role, personal
circumstances. However, the extent to which the training structure and
operational opportunities are limited to women in Vietnam, they have limited room
to occupy the full range of police functions. Given such broad functions within
policing, it supports the manner in which police culture has been conceptualised
as having multiple possibilities.

Modern Vietnamese women join the police for similar reasons as men: family
tradition, status, stable employment and a good salary, yet they are limited in the
breadth and depth of tasks available to them. In a graduation ceremony I
observed, in one awards category there were seven female recipients out of a

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total of 16. Women, therefore, accounted for 44 per cent of award recipients
despite the annual intake being capped at 15 per cent. The lack of gender
diversity in cybercrime is a case in point: Why are 95 per cent of students male
despite this crime-fighting discipline lacking the usual justifications (e.g. physical
limitations) to explain why women are unsuitable? This example is further
evidence of contradictory attitudes to women’s policing; on one hand they are
recognised as academically superior to male students, yet their predominant role
in doing necessary paperwork, was still seen through the lens of inadequacy. This
is especially galling given the high representation of women receiving awards for
academic merit. Whilst women have good maternity leave entitlements the roles
they undertake are typically on the periphery and in roles not readily valued for
promotion to senior ranks.

Women in policing in Vietnam have retained their status as women first and
foremost, then as police. Experiences from other jurisdictions may not apply, for
example, an Australian police officer said, ‘You’re not employed as a female
police officer, you’re employed as a police officer so you should have the same
rules and same regulations, the same accountability’ (Chan et al., 2010, p. 432).
Within a masculinised police culture, being female was sometimes associated
with a negative social capital (Chan et al., 2003).

Given the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a young country established in 1975,

and, the recency of policing institutions, it is beneficial to explore current
perceptions of hegemonic masculinity in Vietnamese policing in the broader
historical context of national security. It would be remiss to forget that the first
three military leaders flighting Chinese invasion in ancient northern Vietnam were
women: Bà Triệu and the Trưng Sisters who fought almost 2000 years ago.
Although the folklore surrounding these women is exaggerated, a fictionalised
mythology doesn’t change their gender and the crucial role of women in the
shaping of Vietnam. The hyper masculine aspects associated with policing such
as aggressive behaviour, physical strength, and solidarity (Crank, 1998; Garcia,
2003) seen in Bà Triệu and the Trung Sisters are interwoven with indigenous
feminine traits of ‘creation and repair’ (Duong, 2001, p. 210), strength and
resilience that does not labour to compete bluntly with men but which seeks to

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carve a pathway to equality through preservation of gender difference. The extent
to which this is an effective and politically useful strategy remains a vexed issue
(Waibel & Gluk, 2013).

This study was undertaken among police in Hanoi who may not represent
women’s views in broader society. The extent to which women in the police want
to navigate into roles dominated by men may vary across occupations, locations,
ages, marital and parental status, education and class. Women police in Hanoi
may represent a particular northern conservative view. One that is satisfied with
the status quo or at least a context which does not threaten official policy but may
allow for some changes. It is possible women employed in the private sphere or
in business may have other views about how women can pursue gender equality.
Police women are also bound by their compulsory membership of the Women’s
Union. The Union aims to represent women’s collective views and membership
may mean that, individual action is discouraged. Within this top-down paradigm
the needs of policewomen may not be best represented because they are may
be unable to determine their own strategy for advancement.

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Chapter 9: Conclusion

Introduction

This chapter summarises the findings and elaborates on some of the themes
developed in the previous chapters. Traditional scholarship has privileged
assumptions about the central characteristics of policing and police culture from
the global North, especially Anglo-American perspectives, as the norm from
which other variations are regarded as deviations. The study found that
assumptions in scholarship on policing and police culture in the global North do
not always apply to circumstances elsewhere and argues that the field of policing,
if broadened to include the global South, can be read as a potential site for a
diversity of institutional forms, priorities and cultures. It is often assumed that
progress runs from north to south. However, this thesis contends that indigenous
forms of social control (notwithstanding they are often a blend of influences)
outside the global North may provide important lessons for Anglo-American
policing.

The research set out to answer the following questions:

4. What are the historical, political, economic, social and cultural influences
which shape policing and police culture in Vietnam?
5. How do structural and cultural influences affect the nature of women's
inclusion in policing in Vietnam?
6. What are the theoretical and policy implications of the findings?

This research used an ethnographic approach with Vietnam as a case study to

explore the implications of Southern theory (Connell, 2007) for policing
scholarship. Data presented show the field of policing in Vietnam is very different
to those reported in Anglo-American studies. These differences were explored
through the broad categories of the political system, police education, police-
community relations, societal culture and gender relations.

The research faced ethical and methodological issues due to limitations on

access and requirements for confidentiality. The results are subject to the proviso
that it is possible participants were concerned about speaking freely with a
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foreigner which may impact on the reliability of the data in certain respects. This
risk was recognised from the start. While it could not be eliminated, action was
taken to mitigate it so far as possible. The experience of researching Vietnamese
policing cannot be the same as that of researching English or Australian policing.
Nonetheless, the findings provide clear insights into Vietnamese students’ and
police officers’ perceptions of policing in Vietnam which reflected broader
understandings of social relations.

Chan’s framework was useful in the current study for analysing policing in
Vietnam. A crucial element of what Chan (1997; Chan et al., 2003), drawing on
Bourdieu (1990a), calls the ‘field of policing’ encompasses state-society relations
which have been examined by Kerkvliet (2001). Police are key actors in this field.
In this context, actors’ positions are overlapping as they are simultaneously
citizens, police and Party members. Police operate in a field where political
affiliation is assumed. Professional education includes political ideology (a
continuation from primary and secondary curricula). What distinguishes public
and private space is blurred. This study has shown that concepts drawn from
Anglo-American policing scholarship cannot adequately explain policing in other
contexts with differing political systems, histories and economic trajectories. A
Southern Policing perspective draws attention to possibilities for new forms of
analysis in the policing field, which can broaden our understanding of policing
and police cultures elsewhere. Policing and its cultures and core characteristics
may be understood differently if considered using an inductive logic framed in the
global South.

The following sections will look at issues that arise from the methodological
approach of this study set within the field of policing more generally. It will be
suggested that we can learn from shared experiences and differing perspectives
in the tasks of understanding and improving policing. The focus will be on: this
study’s contribution to police ethnography; policing in a changing field; features
stabilising the field of policing; state-society relations; women in policing; and
theoretical contributions of a Southern policing perspective

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Contribution to police ethnography

Fluidity of researcher positionality in police ethnography

In police ethnography, Brown (1996) suggested that researchers could inhabit

four ‘positions’: inside insiders, outside insiders, inside outsiders, and, outside
outsiders. These categories have been adapted by Westmarland (2011, 2016)
and their impact on research outcomes questioned (Davies, 2016). Reflecting on
these categories, I find it easy to confirm that I do not occupy the position of
‘insider insider’, however, I can potentially place myself in the other three
categories. The ‘outsider insider’ category includes former officers but indicates
they research their former colleagues in a domestic, national context (J. Brown,
1996; Westmarland, 2016). In my case, as a former police officer, I studied police
in another country which has a culture very different from my own. In Chapter 4,
I queried whether a former police officer researching police in a foreign country
was an ‘outside insider’ or ‘outside outsider’. Though I could also be ‘inside
outsider’ given I had ‘official’ access, I would not suggest I was ‘treated as being
on the same side’ as the Vietnamese police despite their official support
(Westmarland, 2016, p. 165). These complexities show that the positionality of a
police ethnographer is fluid and that it is possible for researchers to transition
between the various insider/outsider categories. Furthermore, the four categories
outlined by Brown (1996) may not be the only categories available to researchers:
Davies’ (2016) emphasis on reflexivity of the researcher is important irrespective
of whether one identifies as a particular type.

In commenting on Nordic policing research, Holmberg (2015) lamented the lack

of cross-national research. He suggests there has been a sort of ‘homeliness’
where researchers (former officers or not) usually study police in their home
country (Holmberg, 2015, p.43; Punch (2015) shared this view). Holmberg (2015,
p. 55) sees this ‘nation-centric’ approach as a missed opportunity for gaining new
insights into policing:

Fieldwork in the police must be dependent on the

researcher’s person, but the fact that almost all fieldworkers
share national background with the officers they study may

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 influence their outlook and reduce their ability to question
and explore what is taken for granted – the unspoken
values.

In his study of police in Australia, Dixon (2011, p. 232) suggested his English
background meant he could feign ignorance on some issues or ask ‘naïve
questions about local politics and current events’ to garner insights.
Consequently, there are possibilities for expanding Brown’s (1996) categories,
for example, ‘occupational insider/cultural outsider’ or ‘occupational
outsider/cultural insider’ etc. But, these too can be simplistic given the variation
within occupational and national cultures themselves. What is crucial is that
researchers reflect openly on how who and what they are affects their work.
Ethnographers also need to be reflexive about their position in academia given
they have been socialised into this field too (Chan, 2013).

Appreciative inquiry

This research used ethnography to study police in a one-party state. Other

scholars of Vietnamese society have addressed the inaccuracy in popular
discourse of referring to Vietnam as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘repressive’ (Koh, 2001,
p. 279) and indicated that it has more variation than outsiders (i.e. foreigners)
often allow (Hayton, 2010). My intention in this research has been to capture
some of the strengths of policing in Vietnam, for example, a notion of community
engagement which goes beyond the slogan of ‘community policing’ in Western
countries.

Examining policing from a problem-focused approach which assumes knowledge

of what the problems are and seeking to criticise what is ‘wrong’ can be
misleading and, consequently limiting prospects for meaningful change. In
addition, I did not want to impose a Northern frame of reference onto policing
practices in Vietnam (though I note in Chapter 4 that I sometimes found this
challenging with respect to gender issues). An appreciation of the ‘holistic system
or set of structures’ which produce police practice (including misconduct of
various sorts) is necessary in order to have access to information which may help
prevent such behaviour in future (Celermajer, 2018, p. 151).

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In some ways, this approach resembles ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) which seeks to
understand a community or system in its own terms and to harness the energy of
its positive aspects in order to change it (Elliott, 1999; Liebling, Elliot, & Price,
1999; Liebling, Elliott, & Arnold, 2001). Furthermore, Liebling et al. (2001, p. 161)
argue that AI is a ‘fair and inclusive research approach’ which engages
participants in a meaningful process. Indeed, there are policing approaches
identified in this study from which we can learn, and which might stimulate
possibilities for policy transfer from global South to North. It also has the potential
to avoid the pitfalls of exploitation through data extraction which Connell (2007)
describes as comprising much Northern/Southern research by emphasising the
exchange of learning.

For example, some studies of police misconduct or corruption characterise such

behaviour as ‘moral disengagement’ (Wahl, 2014, p. 819). In Wahl’s (2014, p.
820) study of police violence in India, she argues that police who use violence
may not be ‘disconnected from moral beliefs’ but that they may be functioning
under ‘alternative moralities’. In order to understand their practices, we must try
to see them through their eyes, not categorise them as deviant according to our
norms. Similarly, the dynamics of the relations between police and citizens in
Vietnam provide insights into how police perceive what constitutes a ‘good’ police
officer. Predominantly, building or maintaining ‘good’ relationships with the
community was important. Using Wahl’s conceptualisation of ‘moral
engagement’, this can apply to situations where Vietnamese police enact their
professional role through bypassing rules (e.g. which make it illegal to receive
bribes) to achieve the aim of (a version of) harmonious relationships (e.g.
reducing inconvenience for citizens). Wahl (2014) points out that understanding
the source of motivations for police misconduct or corruption as being facilitated
by, rather than, disconnected from a moral stance presents an opportunity for
reform advocates to target messages for change accordingly.

Using an appreciative inquiry approach can be useful for researchers who occupy
the position of cultural outsider, particularly where international experts from the
global North are employed to review policing approaches in the global South. As

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Rothman (1980/2002, p. 11) suggests, ‘… to appreciate the dynamic is to be able
to recognize the opportunity to affect it’.

Conceptualisations of ‘culture’

With respect to police culture, Westmarland (2016, p. 163) asserted that

‘[r]esearching a topic that is seen as the “cause” of so many problems for the
police is fraught with difficulties’. This view is based on the assumptions from
Western literature that police culture was a negative influence on policing (for
example Holdaway, 1983; Rowe, 2004) (with exceptions, for example, see Chan,
1997; Chan et al., 2003; O’Neill & McCarthy, 2014; Waddington, 1999). Police
culture in Vietnam needs to be understood in a broad historical context. In
Vietnam, the fight for a sovereign and independent nation meant political and
literary elites actively set out to construct a national culture to mobilise and unify
the population (Ninh, 2002). Even today, this is an ongoing project at national,
provincial and local levels where both tangible and intangible (heritage) cultural
products are contested, where local communities or organised groups seek
official endorsement for legitimation (Salemink, 2013). Cultural products can
bring economic, symbolic and social capital when, for example, a location or
customary practice (e.g. folklore) becomes a tourist attraction bringing wealth to
an area. Salemink (2013) describes ‘appropriating culture’ as a political process
in Vietnam: the Government simultaneously sought to modernise the country
whilst having a nationalist pursuit of identity founded in local customs and
traditions.

A contribution to police ethnography from this study is the recognition that ‘culture’
– even among police – is not necessarily a concept that warrants concern, but
one which police themselves actively used as a tool to reflect on and draw upon
to explain their own perceptions and behaviours. The approach to constructing
culture was evident in current police practices, for example, building ‘cultural
spaces’ and hosting ‘cultural performances’ at the Police Academy. In this study,
there were many dynamics at play: for example, I believe approaches to
constructing culture in Vietnam coupled with my being a foreign researcher meant
to talk of ‘culture’ provided an accessible reference point for police to provide an
account of a topic which relates to both police culture and Vietnamese identity.
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This enabled a form of what Giddens (1979, p. 5) described as ‘discursive
penetration’ referring to the degree that people can understand and articulate the
social systems in which they participate. Whilst I am suggesting that some police
in this study had a high degree of discursive consciousness (Giddens, 1979), this
also requires some qualification. Given Vietnam’s ongoing project to identify
cultural products, it may be that engaging in a ‘verbal act’ or giving a ‘verbal
account’ (Mathieu, 2009, p. 180) about culture has become part of taken-for-
granted aspects of culture that it more closely resembles a practical
consciousness, rather than a discursive one.

Whilst symbolism and rituals are part of other police forces, it was the frequent
use of the term ‘culture’ which makes explicit that it is understood as both a
product and the invisible, taken-for-granted mechanisms to cope with police work.
This means that attempts to reform the police in Vietnam can invoke the concept
of culture as a tool for change and to harness positive aspects of culture without
necessarily having negative connotations.

The field of policing: the dynamics of change and stability

The field of policing is changing. Internationalised markets, migration and

technology are contributing to increased globalisation and interaction (and
possibly conflicts) (Karstedt, 2001). The introduction of New Public Management
techniques, such as performance indicators, emphasised the police function as
one of crime control, but also a service-oriented perspective (Van Dijk et al.,
2015). The approach focused on the quantitative measurement of police activities
to enhance accountability (including financial accountability though value for
money) to government and the community. Terrorism and transnational crime
have produced new units and requirements for cross-border collaboration, and
workforce diversity has become more valued as a source of legitimacy and
accountability as well as a new challenge for managerial oversight (Van Dijk et
al., 2015). However, these changes are not evenly felt across all countries nor
are the social and political responses to them consistent. Consequently, these
and other factors (for more examples, see Van Dijk et al., 2015, pp. 23-30)
function in relation to global and local dynamics which contribute to change and
stability in the field of policing. Importantly, changes in some aspects of the field
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may have unintended consequences and so these factors are not determinate.
The following sections examines some of these factors in more detail.

Change

The title of this thesis is ‘Policing in a changing Vietnam’; but which aspects of
policing and Vietnam are changing? In Chan’s (1997) critique of theoretical
frameworks to explore police culture, she argued that the field of policing had
been underestimated in its impact on shaping police culture. Importantly, the
policing field is only one field of power which interacts and overlaps with others
in a struggle for power (Swartz, 1997). Thus, the field is amenable to change.

In Chapter 7, I noted how police tended to talk about possibilities for change in
terms of technological change or changes in crime patterns (e.g. transnational
crimes). This may indicate that changes to police culture and practice are more
likely to come from global changes, rather than internally. For example, Vietnam
had to make major changes to its legal institutions to be accepted into the World
Trade Organization in 2006 so it could benefit from international trade (World
Trade Organization, 2006). A nation’s economy is one aspect shaping the field of
policing that scholars must consider when researching police. Vietnam has been
identified as one of Asia’s strongest growing economies. In the coming decades,
this increased prosperity will change the field for policing with both opportunities
and challenges.

Differences in economic development and infrastructure shape the way policing

services are delivered, in Vietnam, this includes the ability (or lack of) for both
police and the public to purchase cars for transport. Ericson (1982, p. 6) observed
that a reason for the distance between police and the community was the fact
officers patrolled in cars with little interaction with the public. In 1982, cars were
barely a feature in Vietnam given the American War had only ended seven years
prior. The country was subject to US-led embargoes on trade cutting them off
from manufactured imports. Cars were uncommon at the time and typically the
property of international agencies providing aid. Vehicle ownership in Vietnam
increased rapidly after economic reform in the mid-1980s, though this was largely
of motorbikes (scooters), rather than cars. In 2010, Hayton (2010) reported that

253
98 per cent of vehicles were motorbikes. Although car ownership is increasing it
remains unavailable to most of the population due to cost. Whilst police have
access to small trucks and cars they are usually the property of District level
police stations, rather than allocated to local ward stations. Incomes in Vietnam
are not high, and it is one country among many countries in the global South
whose local economy (society and culture) have been disrupted by colonialism.

The extent of economic development and the availability of resources are not
necessarily an indicator of the nature of policing in a particular place. Police
priorities intersect and interact with politics and broader cultural values which
affect how policing is organised and carried out. Increased access to technology
does not mean jurisdictions will apply it in the same way, for example, to the
policed or to themselves. Chan et al. (2003, p. 664) described how technology
can alter the field of policing through its use as either ‘resource’ or ‘constraint’.
Where access to advanced technology is used as a resource, it can have
extremely negative consequences if the resources are deployed in ways that
unfairly target individuals or marginalised groups. For example, increasing the
capability of police in the USA by providing excess military equipment such as
weapons and vehicles was later overturned due to backlash about their
deployment on black Americans (Delehanty, Mewhirter, Welch, & Wilks, 2017).
Delehanty et al. (2017, p. 1) found a ‘positive and statistically significant
relationship between [military equipment] transfers and fatalities from officer-
involved shootings’. Conversely, limited resources may be beneficial where they
restrain the potential for repressive or aggressive policing practices as was the
argument for restricting military equipment to police in the USA (Delehanty et al.,
2017). Modernisation and economic development are not pre-conditions to a
linear progression to better policing. Technology can be used for both ‘democratic
or nondemocratic purposes’ (Bayley, 1995, p. 89), and may in fact contribute to
repressing minorities, the disadvantaged or political opponents.

In Chen’s (2016, p. 30) study on frontline police officers in China, he says ‘it is
evident that the development of Chinese policing is following the trend of Western
policing, from being politically-driven to independent, from non-professional
toward professional, from crime-control-oriented toward service oriented, and

254
from traditional toward modernisation’. However, these dichotomies are too
simplistic to characterise the variations in policing, not least because the crime-
control to service-oriented trend has been reversed to an extent. It may be that
China’s expanding middle class are demanding better services and more
accountability from police in major urban centres, but simultaneously Muslim
minorities in western China are being interned by police and local authorities and
‘re-educated’ as they are deemed a threat to political stability and Communist
Party rule (Rauhala, 2018). Furthermore, technology as resource is being
deployed against ethnic Uighurs whose DNA is being collected and stored by
police as well as requiring their identification in the form of a QR code (similar to
a barcode) imprinted on knives they purchase (Millward, 2018) in order to control
dissent. Consequently, technology as resource in a changing field does not
deliver a universally beneficial dividend to all communities.

Access to advanced technology can also change the field of policing in terms of
acting as a ‘constraint’ (Chan, 2003). Studies on Anglo-American policing have
emphasised that patrol police officers work under the least supervision and have
the most discretion (Banton, 1964; Cain, 1973; Van Maanen, 1983). However,
changes in technology have put street police under greater surveillance (Ericson
& Haggerty, 1997), and increasingly so with mounted cameras in vehicles and on
officers bodies. Ganapathy and Cheong (2016, pp. 332-333) reported that the
introduction of Mobile Data Terminals and Global Positioning Systems in
Singapore (among other changes) meant frontline police no longer operated in
what Goldstein (1960) called a ‘low visibility’ environment. Technological
changes, coupled with an organisational commitment to community policing and
accountability revealed the possibility for changes to police sub-cultures
(becoming more risk-averse) as a result of changes in the policing field
(Ganapathy & Cheong, 2016). The specific nature of sub-cultural changes were
described as a ‘peculiar blend’ of Singapore’s ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘democratic’
adaptations (emphasis in original) (Ganapathy & Cheong, 2016, p. 337).
Importantly, the study challenged the notion of a stable and ‘recalcitrant’ police
subculture, but highlighted the significance of changing the field in order to reform
the occupational habitus (Ganapathy & Cheong, 2016).

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In 2017, after I completed fieldwork for this study, the Ministry of Public Security
announced budget cuts and a project for restructuring. I am advised the changes
are still underway and the precise nature of these changes and their effects are
not available to be included here. Notwithstanding, any changes arising from the
budget cuts and restructuring appear to have come as a result of national fiscal
policy rather than being initiated within the People’s Police Force. Consequently,
major changes in policing in Vietnam appear more likely to be driven by factors
external to the police organisation rather than internal factors.

Stability

Whilst global changes and technological advances might create pressures for
police to adapt, there are domestic factors in play that contribute to stability in
policing and police culture. The explicit political affiliation of police in Vietnam is
not found in policing in the global North, where a veneer of political neutrality is
central to understandings of policing, especially in the Anglo-American tradition
(Reiner, 2010, p. 32). Dror (2016, p. 3) addresses the ‘cult of Hồ Chí Minh' (in the
police and elsewhere) and the way that he was venerated after his death (against
his wishes) in a way that was to provide a focal point for political legitimacy of the
Communist Party. Political association is important in Vietnam, not just due to its
symbolic purpose, but because it is a key criterion for employment as a police
officer. Political loyalty is considered, and suitability assessed by the Party, at the
initial stages of applying to join the police.

The political system and relationship between the police and the state have been
highlighted as important domains for examining variation in policing (Banton,
1964; Bayley, 1976; de Maillard & Roché, 2018; Manning, 2005; W. R. Miller,
1999; Reiner, 2010; Van Dijk et al., 2015). Reiner’s (2010) classic text The
Politics of the Police addresses both the relationship between police and politics
in the institutional sense (governments, legislatures, courts), but also the manner
in which police are imbricated in English society and the power (im)balance
inherent in these relationships. With respect to Vietnam, Chapter 5 outlined the
current arrangement in which being a police officer requires loyalty to the ruling
Communist Party, including membership of the Party. Hồ Chí Minh’s ‘6
Teachings’, first espoused in 1948, include being ‘absolutely loyal to the
256
government’ (for cadres including police and public security officers) (Hồ Chí
Minh, 2000). The 6 Teachings remain a core tool for edifying police about morality
and ethical conduct today (Lời Bác dạy giúp hoàn thiện phẩm chất người chiến
sĩ công an, 2018).

Stability in policing in Vietnam is also shaped by the nature of the police hierarchy
and current accountability mechanisms. Although frontline officers in Vietnam do
not use the technology described above in Singapore, it does not mean they
avoid scrutiny. For example, police intelligence networks were described as
reflecting a ‘thousand eyes system’. Presumably, these same eyes can report
back to senior officers if they have concerns about police action, although the
potential for repercussions for officers may vary. Officers consistently expressed
the importance of consulting with supervisors prior to making an arrest (unless in
an emergency). Indeed talking with one’s superiors was considered
commonplace in decision-making. Police discretion took place within a context of
inspection and accountability that differs from Anglo-American studies. The
Vietnamese scenario shares a similarity with police supervision in Japan where
detectives had to seek approval to make an arrest ‘even when they have a
warrant in hand’ and that supervisors would rush to a scene to take control
(Miyazawa, 1992, p. 233). However, strong accountability mechanisms in Japan
may lead to greater anxiety about the possible consequences of a wrong decision
(Bayley, 1976). Western police reform advocates who are interested in
interrogating the ways police determine how, when and why to enforce the law
may find it instructive to pay attention to the dynamics of supervision in Vietnam.
The fundamental concept of constabulary independence, as it is understood in
the global North, is not applicable in the Vietnamese context. Whilst police may
be trained in legal or tactical knowledge, it may be that navigating the
expectations of their managers, Party overseers and the community is more
important in determining how they do their job. These intersecting forms of
oversight may also contribute to stability among policing because they create a
version of order.

The structure of police education in Vietnam differs vastly from the Anglo-
American model. Assumptions that police typically eschew tertiary education are

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based on studies in the global North or Western countries (Bradley & Nixon, 2009;
Lee & Punch, 2004; MacDonald, 1987). In Southeast and East Asia, a history of
university qualifications to enter civil service has also shaped the nature of police
training (Cao et al., 2015). In general, education and scholarship receive high
praise and status in Vietnam. This is partly due to the Confucian ethic but also
because education is seen as a way out of poverty. Police education institutions
in Vietnam have consequently evolved with a strong focus on education with the
People’s Police Academy functioning as a university under the Ministry of
Education and Training. Tertiary education of police in Vietnam is both a norm,
and an aspiration for those wishing to have successful policing careers. Even
lower ranked officers graduating from Police Colleges undertake two years of
study, which is longer than the class-based component of many Anglo-American
courses. The training means students go through a period of two to four years of
socialisation which may contribute to stability of police culture.

In Vietnam, the prolonged program for a trainee population comprised of largely

recent high school leavers experiencing university life, saw police students
participating in social activities and groups on site in the evenings, including
dancing, music groups and other special interests. Whilst these activities were
encouraged to help build confidence of students, participation in the ‘cultural’ life
of the Academy is also a way to demonstrate one’s commitment to the police
organisation. In contrast in Australia, the academy component of training is short
(usually less than six months although this depends on jurisdiction) and may be
undertaken at intervals with a longer period of supervised practical patrol work.
Furthermore, in order to increase diversity most police forces have removed any
upper age limit to attract mature adults. This approach means the life experiences
post-high school is valued when applying for a job as a police officer.

An Australian study by Chan et al. (2003, p. 142) found recruits complained about
the ‘warm and fuzzy’ aspects of their training especially topics aimed at increasing
their social awareness about issues such as cultural sensitivity towards
Indigenous populations which was regarded as peripheral to ‘real’ police work.
Police students in Vietnam did not complain about their training in this way
despite describing it as demanding and requiring a lot of study. The lack of

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criticism could be due to the fear of potential consequences (including expulsion)
for criticising the training, as reported in Chapter 6. Another explanation for this
could also be a difference in expectation of new entrants to police in Vietnam and
Australia. Tertiary education in Vietnam includes compulsory subjects on
Marxism-Leninism and Hồ Chí Minh Ideology along with a specialised curriculum.
Police students, therefore, can reasonably anticipate the theoretical, political and
social aspects of their training. It could also be that curriculum regarding the
policing of ethnic minorities differs from Australia. Nonetheless, cultural sensitivity
towards ethnic minorities by police was not specifically explored in this study.

The Vietnamese police internship program provides additional information about

the attitudes of police to their supervisors. Whilst this thesis does not investigate
the socialisation experience of newly graduated police as they began work at their
allotted station or office, the internship program itself enables students to reflect
on experiences in the field. Studies have shown that new officers try to ‘fit in’ and
emphasise the importance of bonding with experienced officers and building
rapport (Chan et al., 2003). Police students in this study expressed similar
sentiments. A point of difference worthy of further exploration may be that several
students described their efforts at building rapport as ‘getting as much
conversation with other officers in order to know them more and introduce myself’
and asking a lot of questions to show their eagerness to learn. This appears to
contrast with the ethos of … ‘not saying too much’, ‘keeping your mouth shut’
when working with more experienced officers in the field and ‘being seen and not
heard’ highlighted in Chan et al.’s (2003) study. The contrast can be understood
by delving slightly deeper into Vietnamese cultural norms. It may be that
Vietnamese students having been socialised into a broader culture of being
deferential to elders were careful to ask questions or make comments in such a
way that did not challenge a person’s authority. This means they can balance
both talking and not saying too much simultaneously. It also entrenches the
stability of social hierarchy.

What constitutes ‘professional’ policing is contested (Chan et al., 2003). Manning

(1977, p. 121) argued that professionalism was a way for occupations to ‘achieve
power and authority’. Professional policing has also been seen in relationship to

259
improved training and recruitment (Reiner, 1978). More recently, Stone and
Travis (2011) described professional policing as encompassing accountability,
legitimacy and innovation. Notwithstanding, professional police are typically
expected to be relatively independent from politics (Bayley, 2006; Vollmer, 1971).
On this measure, Vietnam’s police would be immediately excluded. But should a
conceptualisation of professional policing derived in the West be applicable to
non-Western countries when assessing professionalism? In answer, it is
important to note that in 2008, Neyroud (2008) argued that professional policing
in the UK remained an aspiration. He pointed out that police did not have a code
of ethics (at the time), nor was it a graduate profession with ‘a well-established
culture of life-long learning and reaccreditation’ (Neyroud, 2008, p. 586). By these
standards, Vietnamese police (at least those graduating from the PPA given the
two-tier system of the Academy and College) could meet aspects of the definition
of a professional ahead of counterparts in more developed economies where
professional training does not require a four-year degree. Vietnamese police
have codes of ethics/conduct which include a commitment to life-long learning
(see Chapter 5) and they are tertiary graduates who undertake degrees acquiring
specialist knowledge (see Chapter 6).

Principles defining professional policing are context-dependent and some

features are more relevant than others in the development of police skills.
Officers-in-training undergo a process of socialisation in the Academy
environment which is followed by socialisation post-graduation in the field (Chan
et al., 2003). Whilst Vietnamese police receive more training than police under
the Anglo-American model, formal education is only one aspect of a range of
influences on police professionalism.

In some police forces, attempts to improve or reform policing may be instigated

externally through litigation for discrimination from employees or the public,
robust investigative journalism, public protests or workforce strikes, as well as
commissioned inquiries into police practices. However, many of these factors
have so far been absent in the Vietnamese context. This may indicate that
approaches to reform in the West may not be suitable for Vietnam.

260
Attempts to improve police organisational performance and accountability to
citizens has been sought through increasing gender diversity among police
workforces to better reflect the characteristics of the populations they serve
(Corsianos, 2011). This view of accountability typically reflects multi-cultural
societies including a range of sub-cultures, minorities and marginalised
communities. To date Vietnam has not embraced gender diversity in the policing
profession. Furthermore, there are limits on recruiting diverse populations
including people with diverse ethnicities, sexualities, marital and parental status,
and, age. One reason may be purely practical. It is conceivable that dorm living
arrangements of up to 16 people in bunks in a room, for four years may be more
acceptable to cohorts of predominately high school graduates and may even be
a disincentive to older or marginalised communities. The structure of police
training in Vietnam may also contribute to lack of diversity. Police graduate from
the Academy as specialists. Depth of knowledge is prioritised through focusing
on a Major subject. This means police are more likely to work their entire career
within a narrow specialist field which creates stability and predictability. At the
same time, it may reduce opportunities for staff turnover at work units while
limiting police ability to adapt to new challenges.

If stability is considered more important than diversity, then training, recruitment

and promotion will all be based on predictability rather than a focus on diversifying
workforce make-up or workplace dynamics. Strategies promoting workforce
diversity in order to increase organisational performance and accountability may
also resonate differently under these circumstances. The emphasis on
maintaining the current selection criteria potentially limits opportunities for non-
traditional entrants to either join or thrive in the Vietnamese police force.
However, entry to the police is connected to the national high school examination
which acts as a filter for the academic aspect of the entry criteria. Decoding the
barriers to diversity is complex, because even to understand this process as
inherently ‘limiting’ indicates a Western sensibility. Ongoing empirical studies
would enable a deeper reading of the nexus between change and stability in
Vietnamese police recruitment and staffing and how these impact on the
diversification of the workforce.

261
These research results suggest that strategies for police reform, include the
theories, mechanisms or campaigns, for policy change in police practice, are not
automatically transferrable across contexts. This is particularly significant
between contexts where criticism is allowed or enabled, and others where
criticism, or perception of it, can be punished. This research highlights the
importance of understanding the social dynamics within a specific occupation,
organisation as well as wider society because sometimes to suggest change
(from inside or outside the organisation) can be seen as a criticism of the existing
system. Furthermore, what is considered an acceptable proposition for change
can depend on the subject matter (Lucius, 2009).

This section considered some aspects of change and stability in the policing field,
however, what may be considered a stable feature at present may change over
time and vice versa. The features are not static because the field of policing
functions in relation to other fields which struggle for power (Swartz, 1997).

State-society relations

This study looked at state-society relations, including the implications of a high

level of familiarity between police and the local community and the blurring of
policing public and private spaces.

Unitary views of police culture were based on the simple idea that police…
‘respond to similar audiences everywhere’ (Crank, 1998, p. 26). If police culture
is a product of the relationship police have with their ‘audience’ it follows that
police cultures reflect their audience’s general moral and social stances. Taking
a broad view, social control in Asia tends towards a general pursuit of harmony
as compared to the Western system, which emphasises an adversarial approach
(Jiao, 2001; J. Liu, 2017; Wong, 2010). That is not to say that harmony between
police and the community is not a goal in cultures outside of Asia, but rather that
it can take on different forms and meanings.

Police officers and students emphasised maintaining harmony and non-

intervention as important features of policing – at least for less serious crimes
although people could warrant police attention if seen to transgress social norms.
This was achieved through being flexible (linh hoạt) to protect or elicit good
262
relationships with the community – sometimes accompanied by an informal
payment. In her study on rural and urban police in the UK, Cain referred to
‘easing’ behaviour on behalf of the rural officers who engaged in practices with a
view to making their ‘work or conditions more congenial’ (Cain, 1973, p. 37). She
describes easing behaviour as being non-prescribed and either licit or illicit.
Easing behaviour facilitated an officer’s acceptance into the community and she
gives examples of hospitality through accept offers of beer, cider, tea or home-
made scones (Cain, 1973, p. 37). Whilst these rituals were an expression of
friendliness on behalf of the citizen, police could use the opportunity to ‘exchange
useful information about those living on the beat’ (Cain, 1973, p. 37). Cain’s
research highlighted how the relationship between the police and community,
specifically how ‘reciprocal dependence’ in rural areas shaped the way officer’s
defined their role (Cain, 1973, p. 105). As seen in the example in Chapter 7, when
individuals offer a bribe to police to avoid paying a larger fine in person due to
inconvenience, acceptance of the bribe by police could be viewed as a form of
easing behaviour as the officer is aware people are trying to subvert an
inconvenient process. Of course, an easing behaviour may not fit scenarios which
reflect coercion or extraction on the part of police and may be more a form of
‘backstage punishment’ (Chan, 2000). In the pervasive informal economy in
Vietnam, determining whether ‘offerings’ are voluntary, or the result of tacit
coercion is of relevance if one wants to prevent or reduce behaviours perceived
as misconduct by intervening in the complex system, which supports the practice.

When police enter private homes but with a view to fulfilling a public duty, the
lines between public and private become blurred. In Vietnam we see this through
the checking of household registers and in the UK in the easing behaviour of rural
officers in Cain’s (1973) research. Whilst these examples occurred in very
different parts of the world, they share the duplicitous purpose of an opportunity
to gather intelligence while having a legitimate purpose to visit people in their
homes. Anthropologist Chuck Sturtevant wrote, ‘Police all over the world take
things from people. Whether legal or illegal, the practice often depends on
keeping up a double meaning that provides cover’ (Sturtevant, 2018). In the
aforementioned cases, ‘cover’ refers to the information police take under the
guise of a different purpose. But, similarly as Sturtevant (2018) describes the
263
payment of a bribe to a police officer in Bolivia, people pretend not to notice but
everyone knows what is going on. What constitutes ‘cover’ could be an action,
coded words or even legislation which allows the people or the state to act in
certain ways that have different meanings (Sturtevant, 2018). A macro example
of ‘cover’ can be found in post-war Guatemala, where Nelson (2009, p. 212)
argues the State simultaneously claims ‘to be the law but cannot (or does not)
uphold it’. Indeed, she says, that in some cases police actions place people at
more risk than the initial problem they confronted (Nelson, 2009).

Police perceptions of acceptable demarcations between public and private space

are influenced by the broader culture. The 19th century English policing model
sought to make officers ‘agents of impersonal authority…free from local or class
ties which would compromise their impartiality’ (W. R. Miller, 1999, p. 26). The
current study identified practices in Vietnam which would likely be unwelcome
under the ‘impersonal’ English policing tradition. For example, the one-month
homestay police students undertake in the community and the version of ‘patrol’
entail evening visits to enter households to check resident registration records.
The latter provides opportunities to obtain intelligence and to expose wanted
criminals evading police by avoiding their registered abode. This thesis has found
that the exercise of impersonal authority is anathema to Vietnamese conceptions
of policing. Perceived distance from community is considered problematic as it
compromised police officers’ view of their role in the community as authority and
benefactor. This role is understood to contain elements of flexibility and power.
In these circumstances, policing involves both coercion and consent, especially
given police reliance on an omnipresent network of local informants (Thayer,
2014).

Despite police in Vietnam having far greater entrée into private homes and affairs
than police in the UK, USA and Australia, this has not resulted in increased
prosecution of domestic violence crimes. Police in this study emphasised an
informal talk to a couple was a preferred response to domestic violence; these
findings reflect findings by other scholars (T. Q. Le, 2017; Perkins et al., 2017).

264
Vietnamese society, including official policy, 102 emphasises maintaining family
harmony. Consequently, police responses favour reconciliation rather than formal
intervention (Perkins et al., 2017). Advocates for direct implementation of anti-
domestic violence interventions from the global North to South have been
forewarned that models for legal intervention developed in cultures with different
characteristics of social relations may be ineffective and unethical if implemented
despite being well-intentioned (DeKeseredy & Hall-Sanchez, 2018; Walklate &
Fitz-Gibbon, 2018). This does not mean important lessons cannot be garnered
from elsewhere, but that strategies to prevent or reduce domestic violence should
be informed by empirical studies in the context in which they will be applied.

This section described some ways that state-society relations are an important
variable for analysis because police culture is the result of a relational dynamic,
including the relationship they have with the community. Community expectations
of police can vary across and within cultures.

Women in policing

Although women in Vietnam have status and protection for their maternal role,
their gender can be a source of discrimination. In policing, this is most visibly
represented by the 15 per cent quota which limits the annual intake of women to
commence police training. Legal limitations, including earlier retirement age for
women public servants and prohibition from some occupations, have been
justified as a protection of women (UNODC, 2013) and a paternalist precaution,
rather than a refutation of their ability. One outcome of the quota is that women
will never exceed 15 per cent of the force. Taking into consideration some attrition
the overall proportion of female officers is possibly much lower, especially given
that some areas have a 10 per cent limit.

Whilst no officers interviewed in this study mentioned financial constraints as

justification for instituting or maintaining the 15 per cent quota, an increase in the
proportion of women employees would likely lead to an increase in funds

102
‘The State and society shall provide a favourable environment for the growth of the
Vietnamese family which is prosperous, progressive, and happy; create Vietnamese people
who are healthy, cultured, profoundly patriotic, unified, independent and responsible.’
(Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Amended), 2013, Article 60.3)
265
allocated to cover maternity leave entitlements and other workforce implications
arising from a mother’s absence. The trade-off for maternity leave and flexible
work hours in Vietnam may be that women are more likely to be in office-based
roles, rather than operational positions. In Australia, women performing
operational duties alongside men did not have their roles backfilled while on
maternity and reported feeling stigmatised and discriminated against by
colleagues for taking time out of the workforce (VEOHRC, 2017). A lack of flexible
work options contributed to attrition of women officers. Subsequently, a policy of
‘all roles flex’ (available for both men and women) was adopted (VEOHRC, 2017).
The example of maternity leave entitlements highlights the importance of
empirical research to draw out the experience of policewomen in Vietnam, which
has distinct cultural, organisational and legal differences. This is important for
police reform advocates seeking to better understand the context for change.

The cultural space available for women to remonstrate against discrimination in

policing is shaped by the broader political, social and cultural environment, thus,
lessons from the Western experience may not be appropriate (Strobl, 2008). For
example, in Vietnam there can be serious consequences for opposing State
policies. The parameters for women to complain about sexual harassment are
limited. These may be enforced unevenly but they coincide with social penalties
for being divisive or causing disharmony. Although women in this study did not
indicate they were concerned to report such incidents for fear of repercussions
for their careers, it may be the case that the broader field of gender relations
external to the police organisation affects the space for women to complain. The
use of overt resistance including recourse to litigation employed by ‘pioneering’
women in studies of European policing as reported by Brown (1997) are not
suitable advocacy interventions in the Vietnamese context. Vietnam requires an
approach to change, which integrates political sensitivity, realism and long-term
gains identified by Vietnamese police women themselves.

There are examples of positive change for female police in East Asia that have
been the result of culturally sensitive approaches. Expanding women’s
integration in policing in Taiwan was at the direction of the newly elected
President in 2000 (Cao et al., 2014). President Chen Shuibian enacted national

266
policies to increase the number of women police as well as increase the range of
roles for which they were deployed. It was part of a broader campaign to promote
women’s ‘right-to-work’ and prohibit employment discrimination against women
(Ministry of Labor (Amended), 2014). Despite the high profile and formal policy
approach towards gender equality in Taiwan, Cao et al. (2014) argue that the
Confucian patriarchal influence remains a strong factor in shaping space for
women to pursue careers in policing. Moreover, Cao et al. (2014) suggest internal
momentum for the ‘gender agenda’ waned, thus, limiting its effectiveness. Whilst
the national push doubled the number of women officers over a 12 year period, it
was still only 7.72 per cent (Cao et al., 2014; Gingerich & Chu, 2013). The
government retain a policy for a 1:9 female to male ratio for police working at the
neighbourhood level and a maximum quota of 18 per cent (which they still have
not met) (Cao et al., 2014). The positive result of this change is that the numbers
of women officers have increased, along with (qualified) acceptance of women in
operational roles (Gingerich & Chu, 2013). But the expansion of women’s roles
also saw unintended negative consequences. An administrative department
previously only staffed by women was opened to both genders. Where women
were previously promoted up the ranks in this department, men came into the
unit and took up more positions previously held by women; effectively limiting a
former pathway to promotion.

In Vietnam being seen to be a good wife, mother, daughter-in-law and spending

time focusing on family life was understood to be more important than pursuing
a career. The importance of fulfilling correct gender roles was consistently
reinforced in Vietnam by societal pressures including the possibility of social
exclusion. Exclusion means loss of status, support and economic safety nets.
This can lead to destitution or even death. The Women’s Union can play an
important role by promoting ‘collective agency’ which breaks down gender
stereotypes and opens opportunities for individual women at lower levels to
pursue non-traditional gender roles, thus ‘chang[ing] the conditions of
accountability of individual actions’ (Connell, 2009, p. 109). A collective pursuit
towards changing the 15 per cent quota might enable individual women at lower
levels to pursue non-traditional roles which over time has the potential to lead to
minimising the extent individual women have to their gender stereotype. It does
267
not force women to challenge stereotypes, but it does provide the space and
opportunity for self-determined change. This process creates the conditions for
an environment where a variety of expressions of gender are accepted. This
change benefits men and women because neither are held to a norm which
differentiates through gendered accountability. According to psychologist Janet
Hyde (2005), this can increase opportunities for employment (added income),
opportunities to experience success, perspective and buffering. This last factor,
which is an interaction between two roles, enables the successes in one role to
offset the failures in another.

In 300 AD, Bà Triệu sat atop an elephant, sword in hand, and went in to combat
to protect her homeland. In the 21st Century, women can harness the opportunity
to be on the frontline of national security, using contemporary tools. Increasingly,
contemporary policing involves digitisation, analysis and creativity. Policewomen,
who have proven themselves to be studious and of high intellect are well-suited
to the frontiers of office-based scrutiny of cybercrimes. Furthermore, with
advances in technology, women (and men) could work remotely and with flexible
hours to juggle family and work demands.

Theoretical contributions of a Southern Policing perspective

The study of international policing is important because, as Bayley (1999, p. 5)

put it, ‘without international study it is easy to believe that local practice is not only
inevitable but best’. When Connell (2007) laid out the foundations for Southern
Theory, she not only looked to the potential for other ways of doing or being, but
to raise awareness about the imbalance in the production of academic knowledge
which can lead us to assume the inevitability of specific practices. Questions
about criminological knowledge, and avenues for enquiry, become more visible
with reference to ‘Southern criminology’ which seeks to make explicit the power
dynamics involved in knowledge creation which underpins our theoretical
frameworks for understanding crime and criminal justice responses (Carrington,
2016).

Understanding this broad North/South divide fits neatly into Chan’s (1997; Chan
et al., 2003) model of police culture which drew on Bourdieu’s (1990a) concept
268
of the ‘field’ to facilitate analysis of the external factors which shape practice, and
in Chan’s research, specifically police practice. The necessary link or subjective
relationships between researchers and the researched is further elucidated by
Bourdieu (1973) who examined the field of work for academics. A relevant
framework here draws on Chan and Bourdieu to analyse and account for change
in the field and habitus of police, Connell (2007) extends analysis to include
histories of colonialism and conflict which feed into Chan’s concepts of field.
Bourdieu’s (1973; Naidoo, 2004) reflections on power dynamics involved in the
execution of academic work all combine to produce varied and subjective
accounts of social and cultural phenomena – a divergence from the objective
pursuit of scientific knowledge previously presented.

Pathways to policing and academia are the product of a relational dynamic

between field, habitus and capital and neither should be assumed to be apolitical.
The emphasis on power relations extends to knowledge production within regions
and countries as well. Scholars of criminology in Communist countries confront
distinct hierarchies of knowledge production of their own (Xu, 2016); in Vietnam,
for example, criminology is the domain of police who are simultaneously
Communist Party Members which presents its own constraints and censorship.
A Southern policing perspective seeks to engage critically with the processes
which limit scholarship on policing in the global South as well as contribute to
building theory that can speak to Southern-specific concerns.

Future research directions

The study raises many possibilities for future research to explore policing with
respect to Vietnam and globally. An obvious domestic comparison would be
between the north and south, but also urban and rural differences within these
areas and border policing whether it be inland or maritime. Certainly, central
Vietnam is a geographical region with its own history worthy of examination.
Comparative analysis among post-Confucian and East and Southeast Asian
countries with varied political histories and economic status, for example, China,
Taiwan and Singapore (among others) could provide interesting perspectives on
a range of dynamics to identify points of convergence or divergence.

269
The provision of Northern policing advisors and consultants, and, rule of law
programs to the global South have been attempts to influence law enforcement
approaches. The effectiveness of these have been questioned because outsiders
do not necessarily understand the historical, political and cultural contexts of the
place they seek to influence through developing policies or conducting police
training. This means that trying to graft Northern approaches onto police practices
in a different cultural context may not be sustainable or appropriate (Watson &
Kerrigan, 2018). Research into the dynamics about why some attempts at policy
transfer are successful and not others can provide important insights about the
key ingredients for cross-cultural collaborations and processes of change for
police reforms.

Overall, Vietnam has reduced poverty significantly since economic reforms,

however, the benefits have not been felt evenly across the country. A range of
geographical features, combined with official policies, have meant some areas
have benefited more than others in terms of foreign investment, tourism and
industry. However the positive economic effects of development may be offset by
environmental degradation or pollution with a recent survey finding some citizens
preferred environmental protection over economic growth in some circumstances
(CECODES, 2018). This issue may increasingly become a point of tension and
cause for protest in Vietnam which may be a source of instability in future
requiring police to find ways to respond to high level policies and localised politics.

Future research may focus more narrowly on specific specialisations, stations or

functions for a more in-depth understanding of policing. Given this is the first
ethnographic study (in English) on policing in Vietnam, it aimed to broaden
understanding of the police by focusing on aspects of the field. It draws on
interviews with police who work or study across a range of fields from
administration and office-based work, to crime investigation and emergency
response. Some researchers may have chosen to interview police who were
destined for operational policing, but this research was keen to explore gendered
aspects of policing. This necessitated including women who may not be deployed
operationally and so the PPA was a vital source for the interview sample.

270
Chapter 6 highlighted how the specialised curriculum and subsequent breadth of
tasks undertaken across the organisation has further implications for
understanding police cultures and the potential possibilities for reform. This is
because police working in forensic science [e.g. ballistics, fingerprints, fraudulent
documents] have different occupational influences than those working in prisons
or in criminal investigations who interact with offenders, suspects, victims and
witnesses. Although this study included students and officers across a range of
specialty areas, their limited experience working in the field means their
responses may differ from veteran operational officers.103

Police studies in the global North have a general interpretation of what is meant
by police ‘patrol’. This term does not neatly transfer to the structure of policework
in Vietnam and it warrants further exploration. The multiple layers of policing and
social control mechanisms were not explored in this thesis in-depth. However,
the relatively recent emphasis on prevention and partnerships in the global North
have been embedded in the social structures of some Asian societies for much
longer.

The position of police in state-society relations could also be explored further

especially in relation to how police exercise discretion and what community
expectations are of police. Further investigations into the implications of
technological advancements would also be useful including the implications of
surveillance, including online surveillance and censorship in a one-party state.

Conclusion

The asymmetry of available literature on policing in the global North and South is
the product of a range of historical power relations. With respect to Vietnam,
London (2014, p. 3) noted the absence of ‘social and economic conditions and
processes’ analyses in policy-driven social research due to politics being ‘off-
limits’ despite such processes and conditions being inherently political. In
Vietnam, politics invariably includes the police. My hope is that the Vietnamese
police find value in opening themselves to external academic scholarship with a

103
Police lecturers are required to undertake two-year operational appointments at intervals in
order to stay up to date with practice in the field.
271
view to enhancing services to the community as well as the training and
opportunities available to students and staff. There are many trade-offs and
compromises when conducting research in sensitive political environments which
evoke personal, political and professional complexities. Issues confronted
included confidentiality, independence of the research, possibilities for
censorship, written and unwritten rules, and, uneven transparency about the fact
the research was being undertaken at all. Despite a raft of challenges, the study
hopes to provide useful insights on and an original contribution to scholarship on
Vietnamese policing and a framework to inspire thinking about policing in the
global North and South in different ways.

The objective of Southern theory includes to draw attention to scholarship and

practices from the global South so that we may expand our understanding of the
world without relying on a skewed Northern frame of reference. This thesis seeks
to contribute to advancing knowledge on policing through demonstrating a range
of differences in the policing field about matters that were taken for granted
among policing scholars until relatively recently. By acknowledging there is more
diversity in the field of policing that previously assumed, we can identify more
variables which form part of the relational dynamic (Bourdieu, 1990a) which
produces police culture and practice (Chan, 1997; Chan et al., 2003).

In the opening paragraph of this thesis I referred to David Bayley’s (1976)

comparative research on policing in Japan and the United States. Bayley (1976,
p. ix) said the importance of learning about other culture is that it helps us
understand our own. In a conversation with a Vietnamese police officer about the
translation of ‘flexibility’ regarding police use of discretion, he told me that police
in Vietnam needed to consider every aspect before deciding to arrest a person.
He referred, somewhat sympathetically, to the ‘weaker’ family connections in
Western countries compared to Asia and we discussed broad social and cultural
differences and the limitations of policy transfer for some policing approaches.
Wrapping up, he said, ‘But we can still learn from each other’. Indeed, we can.

272
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Appendices

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Appendix 1: The standards for soft skills at the People’s Police
Academy

The standard for soft skills are as follows:

3.1. Standard of Commanding Officer

Achieving the standard of commanding officers includes: practical
command skills, leadership skills, advisory skills.
3.2 Standard of shooting
Handgun Shooting: Fixed shots (five rounds) and hidden shots (five
rounds) must be tested and reaching a minimum of 70/100 points, with
each test reaching a minimum of 25/50 points.
3.3 Standard of martial arts
Getting the People's Public Security’s Certificate of martial arts, the
Advanced Program (equivalent to the teacher of martial arts).
3.4 Standard of Military swimming
Achieving the Standard of Military swimming
3.5 Standard of driving
Having a motorcycle driver’s license for A1 class and automobiles for B1
or B2 class. Particularly for students of “Traffic Police on Roads and
Rails”, students must have a A2 motor driver's license and a C-class for
automobiles; Students of the Waterway Police Department must have a
certificate of driving the People's Police Canoe.
3.6 Standard of Information Technology
Achieving the standard of using advanced information technology.
3.7 Standard of Foreign Language
Achieving the standard foreign language output level 3rd according to
Vietnam's 6-level foreign language ability framework or equivalent.

Source: People’s Police Academy (2017g).

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Appendix 2: Major specialisations at the People’s Police
Academy

Major specialisations
1.1 State Management on Social Order and Safety
- State management in urban and rural areas; Public Relations; Criminal
justice.
1.2 Criminal Police
- The pursuit of the offender and the search for material evidence related to
foreign elements;
- Specialized dog used by police in the fight against crime of social order.
1.3 Investigative Police
- Activities of People's Court, People's Procuracy in Criminal Procedures;
- The role and activities of the lawyer during the investigative phase of the
criminal case;
- Use professional technical means in reconnaissance.
1.4 Economic Police
- Accounting and auditing; Business management, finance, banking; Business
administration and contract.
1.5 Forensic Science
- Activities of assessors at People's Court;
- New issues of criminal chemistry, criminal biology, drug and medical
examinations – fire; sound inspection, DNA screening.
1.6 Traffic Police on Roads and Rails
- Communication and behavioural skills of Traffic Police on Roads and Rails;
- Solving a number of specific situations in the work of Traffic Police on Roads
and Rails;
- Criminal Justice.
1.7 Police on Criminal Sentence Enforcement and Judicial Assistance
- Criminal Justice; Retrieving offenders from prison; The work of investigation
of the Police on Criminal Sentence Enforcement and Judicial Assistance.
1.8 Police on Narcotic Crime Prevention and Suppression
- Using specialized technique and dogs in Narcotic Crime Prevention;
- International law and international cooperation on drug prevention.
1.9 Armed Police

309
 - Methods, tactics to suppress terrorists;
- Dismissing tactics of disturbing public order, unlawful demonstrations and
riots under the function of the armed police force;
- Skills on commanding and advising for company, battalion and regiment.
1.10 Student of English for Police
- “State Management on Social Order and Safety” profession; Reconnaissance
in People’s Police force; Theoretical issues of criminal investigation; English
Interpreting Skills.
1.11 Environmental Police
- Detecting, receiving, inspecting and handling information of environmental
law violation by the Environmental Police Force;
- Basic knowledge about environmental impact assessment serving the work
of Environmental Police;
- The handling of administrative violations by the Environmental Police.
1.12 Police on Hi – tech Crime Prevention and Suppression
- Standardized skills using advanced information technology (3 modules:
Advanced word processing, Image editing, Information security and
confidentiality);
- Criminal Justice.
1.13 Police on Criminal Procedures Code
- Reconnaissance in People’s Police force; Knowledge of “State Management
on Social Order and Safety”; Specialized records of police.
1.14 Police on Water Ways
- Reconnaissance in Water Ways Police force.
1.15 Students of Chinese for Police
- “State Management on Social Order and Safety” profession; Reconnaissance
in People’s Police force; Theoretical issues of criminal investigation; Chinese
Interpreting Skills.
1.16 Police Advisory and Commander
- Skill of drafting some popular documents in advisory work; Skills of Police
Commanders.
Source: People’s Police Academy (2017b).

310
Appendix 3: Sample of Participant Information Statement and
Consent Form

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT AND CONSENT FORM

Policing in a Changing Vietnam
Professor Janet Chan

The study is being carried out by the following researchers:

Role Name Organisation

Chief Investigator Professor Janet Chan UNSW Australia

Co-Investigator/s Professor David Dixon UNSW Australia

Ms Khuat Thi Hai Oanh SCDI Vietnam

Student Melissa Jardine is conducting UNSW Australia

Investigator/s this study as the basis for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at The University of New South
Wales. This will take place under
the supervision of Professor
David Dixon, Dean of Law
School, UNSW and Professor
Janet Chan, UNSW

Research Funder This research is being funded by UNSW Australia.

What is the research study about?

You are invited to take part in this research study. You have been invited due to your
professional or personal experience in the area of this research. I would like to ask you
some questions with respect to the nature of policing in Vietnam and your ideas and
suggestions about challenges and opportunities the People’s Police Force faces in
addressing community safety.

To participate in this project you need to meet the following inclusion criteria:
• Be a police officer, police student or professionally engaged, or have knowledge
of public security and crime-related issues in Vietnam

The research study is aiming to be a resource to inform decisions about how to best
equip Vietnamese police with necessary knowledge and skills to adapt to contemporary
public security challenges. The research hopes to produce some recommendations for
refining professionalisation efforts of police in Vietnam.

311
Do I have to take part in this research study?
This Participant Information Statement and Consent Form tells you about the research
study. It explains the research tasks involved. Knowing what is involved will help you
decide if you want to take part in the research.

Please read this information carefully. Ask questions about anything that you don’t
understand or want to know more about. Before deciding whether or not to take part,
you might want to talk about it with a relative or friend.

If you decide you want to take part in the research study, you will be asked to:
• Sign the consent form ;
• Keep a copy of this Participant Information Statement;

Participation in this research study is voluntary. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t
have to. Your decision will not affect your relationship with The University of New South
Wales;

What does participation in this research require, and are there any risks
involved?
This research project is not concerned with information that may be private, classified,
or relation to specific criminal offences. You are requested not to disclose such
information during the interview. If you feel that taking part in the study may put you at
risk personally or professionally, you are free to withdraw from the study at any time.

You may experience some discomfort or inconvenience. These may include:

• anxiety caused by being interviewed; and,
• giving up time to participate in the research.

Although the researcher cannot guarantee that you will definitely not be treated
differently by colleagues or supervisors as a result of taking part in the study, every
precaution will be taken to make sure that your interview responses are not identifiable
in any way.

If you decide to take part in the research study, you will be asked to participate in an
interview with the researcher which may take approximately 1-2 hours. During the
interview the researcher will ask you questions about police practices and training in
Vietnam. She will digitially record the interview using an audio recorder with your
consent. The interview/s can take place at a location of your choosing which may be
your place of work, café or at a local research institute accessible to the researcher.
The interview does not involve any physical risk to you. You can withdraw any time.

Will I be paid to participate in this project?

You will be reimbursed for any reasonable travel, parking, meals and other expenses
associated with the research study which will be paid in cash by the researcher.

What are the possible benefits to participation?

We hope to use information we get from this research study to be a resource to inform
decisions about how to best equip Vietnamese police with necessary knowledge and
skills to adapt to contemporary public security challenges.

What will happen to information about me?

By signing the consent form you consent to the researcher collecting and using
information about you for the research study. Your data will be kept for seven years

312
after publication of the findings. We will store information about you at The University of
New South Wales. Your information will only be used for the purpose of this research
study and it will only be disclosed with your permission.

It is anticipated that the results of this research study will be published and/or
presented in a variety of forums. In any publication and/or presentation, information will
be provided in such a way that you will not be identified in these publications unless
you agree to this by providing written consent to the researcher.

You have the right to request access to the information about you that is collected and
stored by the researcher. You also have the right to request that any information with
which you disagree be corrected. You can do this by contacting the researcher.

The audio digital recordings are for the purposes of the research study. After the
interview(s) we will transcribe your digital recordings. We will keep your digital
recordings in the form of transcription for seven years after publication. We will store
information about you at The University of New South Wales. Your confidentiality will
be ensured by protecting your anonymity and securely storing any records of your
participation.

If you are a police officer or student at a police training institution, such as the
People’s Police Academy or a Police College, the International Co-operation
Department will record your name as having taken part in the research. Some
information from any interview you participate in may also be included in the
report. This information may be made available to the Rector of the People’s
Police Academy if requested. The International Co-operation Department will
retain these records for as long as they deem necessary. If you are concerned
about this requirement, you can decline to participate in the interview.

How and when will I find out what the results of the research study are?
You have a right to receive feedback about the overall results of this study. You can tell
us that you wish to receive feedback by indicating in writing on the consent form or
emailing the researcher. This feedback will be in the form of an executive summary of
the research and/or an oral presentation to disseminate the findings in Hanoi. You will
receive this feedback after the study is finished.

What if I want to withdraw from the research study?

If you do consent to participate, you may withdraw at any time. If you do withdraw, you
will be asked to complete and sign the ‘Withdrawal of Consent Form’ which is provided
at the end of this document. Alternatively you can ring the researcher and tell her you
no longer want to participate.

If you decide to leave the research study, the researchers will not collect additional
information from you. You are free to stop the interview at any time. Unless you say
that you want us to keep them, any recordings will be erased and the information you
have provided will not be included in the study results. You may also refuse to answer
any questions that you do not wish to answer during the interview.

What should I do if I have further questions about my involvement in the

research study?
The person you may need to contact will depend on the nature of your query. If you
want any further information concerning this project or if you have any problems which
may be related to your involvement in the project, you can contact the researcher:

Research Team Contact

313
 Name Melissa Jardine

Position PhD researcher

Telephone +61 417 374 070

Email [email protected]

What should I do if I have concerns about the risks involved in the research
study?
Should you require any assistance to address any harm, discomfort or inconvenience
arising from this research please contact the researcher or the following people who
will make representations on your behalf to resolve any concerns:

People’s Police Academy contact

Position Research Liaison Officer, Pol. Lieut. Col. Lam Tien Dung

Address People’s Police Academy, Tu Liem, Hanoi

Telephone +84 128 8035777

Email [email protected]

Local ethical review contact

Position Director of the local ethical review board, Dr Khuat Thu
Hong

Address Institute for Social Development Studies, Suite 1804, PH

Floor, The Garden building, Me Tri road, Tu Liem District,
Hanoi, Vietnam

Telephone +84.4.37820058

Email [email protected]

Local supervisor
Position Local fieldwork supervisor, Ms Khuat Thi Hai Oanh

Address Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives,

240 Mai Anh Tuan Street, Thanh Cong ward, Ba Dinh
district, Hanoi, Vietnam

Telephone +84 04 35720689

Email [email protected]

What if I have a complaint or any concerns about the research study?

If you have any complaints about any aspect of the project, the way it is being
conducted, then you may contact:
314
 Complaints Contact
Position Human Research Ethics Coordinator

Telephone + 61 2 9385 6222

Email [email protected]

HC Reference HC15195
Number

Consent Form – Participant providing own consent

Declaration by the participant

I have read the Participant Information Sheet or someone has read it to me in a

language that I understand;

I understand the purposes, study tasks and risks of the research described in
the project;

I have had an opportunity to ask questions and I am satisfied with the answers I
have received;

I freely agree to participate in this research study as described and understand

that I am free to withdraw at any time during the project and withdrawal will not
affect my relationship with any of the named organisations and/or research
team members;

I understand that I will be given a signed copy of this document to keep;

Participant Signature
Name of Participant
(please print)

Signature of Research
Participant

Date

Declaration by Researcher*
I have given a verbal explanation of the research study, its study activities and risks
and I believe that the participant has understood that explanation.

Researcher Signature*
Name of Participant
(please print)

315
 Signature of Research
Participant

Date

+
An appropriately qualified member of the research team must provide the explanation of,
and information concerning the research study.

Note: All parties signing the consent section must date their own signature.

Form for Withdrawal of Participation

I wish to WITHDRAW my consent to participate in the research proposal described above and
understand that such withdrawal WILL NOT affect my relationship with The University of New
South Wales or other professionals.

Participant Signature
Name of Participant
(please print)
Signature of Research
Participant
Date

The section for Withdrawal of Participation should be forwarded to:

CI Name: Professor Janet Chan
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 2 9385 2753
Postal Address: The Law Building
UNSW Australia
Building F8, Union Road
UNSW Kensington Campus
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052
Australia

HC Number: HC15195
Version dated: 21 June 2016

316
 THÔNG TIN VỀ NGHIÊN CỨU VÀ ĐƠN CHẤP NHẬN THAM GIA
Công việc cảnh sát trong một Việt Nam đang chuyển mình
Giáo sư Janet Chan

Nghiên cứu được tiến hành bởi những học giả sau:
Vị trí Họ và tên Cơ quan/tổ chức
Trưởng nhóm Giáo sư Janet Chan Trường Đại học New
South Wales - Úc
Đồng nghiên cứu Giáo sư David Dixon Trường Đại học New
South Wales - Úc
Bà Khuất Thị Hải Oanh SCDI Việt Nam
Nghiên cứu sinh Melissa Jardine tiến hành Trường Đại học New
nghiên cứu này làm nền tảng South Wales - Úc
cho luận văn tiến sĩ tại trường
Đại học New South Wales.
Nghiên cứu được triển khai
dưới sự hướng dẫn của giáo
sư David Dixon, trưởng Khoa
Luật thuộc Đại học New South
Wales và giáo sự Janet Chan,
Đại học New South Wales
Nhà tài trợ Nghiên cứu này được cấp vốn bởi trường Đại học New
South Wales - Úc

Nghiên cứu này về vấn đề gì?

Bạn được mời tham gia dựa trên những kiến thức chuyên môn hoặc cá nhân của mình
về vấn đề được nghiên cứu. Tôi mong muốn trao đổi với bạn một số câu hỏi liên quan
đến bản chất của công việc cảnh sát ở Việt Nam. Các ý kiến và đóng góp của bạn về
những cơ hội và thách thức mà lực lượng công an nhân dân phải đối mặt khi giữ gìn
an ninh của cộng đồng.

Để tham gia vào dự án này, bạn cần phải đáp ứng yêu cầu sau đây:
• Là một sỹ quan cảnh sát, hoc viên trường cảnh sát hoặc người làm nghề
chuyên nghiệp có liên quan hoặc có kiên thức về an toàn xã hội và các chính
sác liên quan đến tội phạm ở Việt Nam

Nghiên cứu sẽ là cơ sở đề xuất các giải pháp nhằm trang bị một cách tốt nhất các kiến
thức và kĩ năng cần thiết cho cảnh sát Việt Nam để thích ứng với những thách thức
trật tự trị an trong thời đại mới. Nghiên cứu này hy vọng sẽ đưa ra một số khuyến nghị
cho nỗ lực chuyên nghiệp hóa lực lượng cảnh sát Việt Nam.

Tôi có bắt buộc phải tham gia vào nghiên cứu này không?
Tài liệu này giải thích cho bạn về nghiên cứu và những nhiệm vụ nghiên cứu có liên
quan. Hiểu rõ về những gì có liên quan sẽ giúp bạn quyết định nếu bạn muốn tham
gia.

317
Xin vui lòng đọc kĩ các thông tin. Đặt câu hỏi về bất cứ điều gì mà bạn không hiểu hoặc
muốn biết thêm. Trước khi quyết định có hay không tham gia, bạn có thể tham khảo ý
kiến của người thân hoặc bạn bè.

Nếu bạn quyết định tham gia, bạn sẽ được đề nghị:

• Kí vào Đơn chấp nhận tham gia;
• Giữ một bản thông tin về nghiên cứu;

Việc tham gia vào nghiên cứu này là tự nguyện. Bạn không bị bắt buộc nếu không
muốn tham gia. Quyết định của bạn sẽ không ảnh hưởng đến mối quan hệ giữa bạn
và trường Đại học New South Wales.

Việc tham gia vào nghiên cứu này đòi hỏi điều gì, và liệu sẽ có rủi ro nào liên
quan?
Dự án nghiên cứu này không quan tâm đến các thông tin cá nhân, mật, hoặc liên quan
đến các hành vi phạm tội hình sự cụ thể. Bạn được yêu cầu không tiết lộ các thông tin
như vậy trong cuộc phỏng vấn. Nếu bạn cảm thấy rằng tham gia vào nghiên cứu này
có thể đặt bạn vào các rủi ro cá nhân hay rủi ro nghề nghiệp, bạn có quyền tự do rút
khỏi nghiên cứu bất cứ lúc nào.

Bạn có thể cảm thấy khó chịu hay bất tiện, bao gồm:
• Lo lắng gây ra bởi việc được phỏng vấn; và,
• Bỏ thời gian để tham gia vào nghiên cứu

Mặc dù các học giả không thể đảm bảo rằng bạn sẽ chắc chắn không bị phân biệt đối
xử bởi đồng nghiệp hay cấp trên do tham gia vào dự án này, mọi biện pháp phòng
ngừa sẽ được thực hiện để đảm bảo rằng câu trả lời phỏng vấn của bạn sẽ không thể
bị tìm ra dù với bất kì cách nào.

Nếu bạn quyết định tham gia vào nghiên cứu này, bạn sẽ được yêu cầu tham gia một
cuộc phỏng vấn kéo dài khoảng 1-2 giờ với các nhà nghiên cứu. Trong cuộc phỏng
vấn, các học giả sẽ hỏi bạn những câu hỏi về thực tiễn công việc và đào tạo của cảnh
sát tại Việt Nam. Nhà nghiên cứu sẽ thu âm cuộc phỏng vấn bằng cách sử dụng một
máy ghi âm nếu có sự đồng ý của bạn. Cuộc phỏng vấn có thể diễn ra tại địa điểm mà
bạn lựa chọn, ví dụ nơi làm việc, quán cà phê hoặc tại một viện nghiên cứu tại địa
phương mà các học giả có thể tiếp cận được. Cuộc phỏng vấn không tồn tại bất kỳ rủi
ro thể chất nào cho bạn. Bạn có thể rút lui bấ cứ lúc nào.

Tôi sẽ được trả tiền để tham gia vào dự án này?

Bạn sẽ được thanh toán cho các chi phí hợp lý như đi lại, đậu xe, ăn uống và các chi
phí khác liên quan đến nghiên cứu này. Các học giả sẽ chi trả bằng tiền mặt.

Những lợi ích có thể nhận được khi tham gia là gì?
Chúng tôi hy vọng thông tin mà chúng tôi nhận được từ nghiên cứu sẽ là cơ sở đưa ra
khuyến nghị nhằm trang bị tốt nhất cho lực lượng công an Việt Nam các kiến thức và
kĩ năng cần thiết để thích ứng với những thách thức trật tự trị an trong thời đại mới.

Điều gì sẽ xảy ra với các thông tin về tôi?

Bằng việc ký vào Đơn chấp nhận, bạn đồng ý với việc các nhà nghiên cứu thu thập và
sử dụng thông tin về bạn cho nghiên cứu. Dữ liệu của bạn sẽ được giữ trong vòng bảy
năm sau khi các kết quả nghiên cứu được công bố. Chúng tôi sẽ lưu trữ thông tin về
bạn tại Đại học New South Wales. Thông tin của bạn sẽ chỉ được sử dụng cho các
mục đích của nghiên cứu này và chúng sẽ chỉ được tiết lộ với sự cho phép của bạn.

318
Có khả năng các kết quả của nghiên cứu này sẽ được công bố và/hoặc trình bày tại
các diễn đàn. Trong bất kỳ ấn phẩm và/hoặc trình bày nào, thông tin sẽ được cung cấp
theo cách mà bạn không thể bị nhận ra, trừ khi các nhà nghiên cứu có sự đồng ý bằng
văn bản của bạn.

Bạn có quyền yêu cầu truy cập các thông tin về bạn được thu thập và lưu trữ bởi các
nhà nghiên cứu. Bạn cũng có quyền yêu cầu rằng bất kỳ thông tin nào mà bạn không
đồng ý được sửa chữa cho đúng. Bạn có thể làm điều này bằng cách liên hệ với các
học giả.

Những bản thu âm kỹ thuật số là dành cho mục đích nghiên cứu. Sau cuộc phỏng vấn,
chúng tôi sẽ chép lại dưới dạng văn bản các bản thu âm này. Chúng tôi sẽ lưu trữ các
bản thu âm dưới hình thức văn bản trong vòng bảy năm sau khi công bố. Chúng tôi sẽ
lưu trữ thông tin về bạn tại Đại học New South Wales. Việc bảo mật thông tin của bạn
sẽ được tiến hành bằng việc bảo vệ danh tính của bạn và lưu trữ an toàn tất cả các hồ
sơ về việc tham gia của bạn.

Nếu bạn là sỹ quan Cảnh sát hay sinh viên tại các cơ sở đào tạo Cảnh sát như là Học
viện Cảnh sát nhân dân hay một trường đào tạo Cảnh sát, phòng Hợp tác quốc tế -
Học viện Cảnh sát nhân dân sẽ ghi nhận sự hợp tác của bạn vì đã tham gia vào quá
trình nghiên cứu. Một số thông tin từ bất kỳ cuộc phỏng vấn nào mà bạn tham gia sẽ
có thể được Phòng Hợp tác quốc tế lưu trữ. Những thông tin này có thể được báo cáo
với Giám đốc Học viện Cảnh sát nhân dân nếu như được yêu cầu. Phòng Hợp tác
quốc tế sẽ lưu giữ các bản lưu này lâu nhất có thể nếu thấy cần thiết. Nếu bạn lo lắng
về các yêu cầu này, ban có thể từ chối tham gia vào việc phỏng vấn.

Làm thế nào và khi nào tôi có thể biết được kết quả của nghiên cứu là gì?
Bạn có quyền nhận được thông tin phản hồi về kết quả tổng thể của nghiên cứu này.
Bạn có thể cho chúng tôi biết rằng bạn muốn nhận thông tin phản hồi bằng cách chỉ rõ
trong Đơn chấp nhận hoặc gửi email cho các nhà nghiên cứu. Thông tin phản hồi này
sẽ được trình bày dưới dạng một bản tóm tắt kết quả của nghiên cứu và/hoặc một bài
thuyết trình để phổ biến các kết quả nghiên cứu tại Hà Nội. Bạn sẽ nhận được thông
tin phản hồi này sau khi nghiên cứu kết thúc.

Nếu tôi muốn rút khỏi nghiên cứu?

Sau khi bạn đồng ý tham gia, bạn có thể rút khỏi nghiên cứu bất cứ lúc nào. Nếu bạn
rút, bạn sẽ được yêu cầu điền và ký tên vào Đơn rút lui được cung cấp ở cuối tài liệu
này. Hoặc bạn có thể liên lạc với các học giả nói với chúng tôi bạn không còn muốn
tham gia.

Nếu bạn quyết định rút lui khỏi công trình nghiên cứu, các nhà nghiên cứu sẽ không
thu thập thêm thông tin từ bạn. Bạn có quyền dừng cuộc phỏng vấn bất cứ lúc nào. Tất
cả các bản thu âm sẽ bị xóa và những thông tin bạn đã cung cấp sẽ không được sử
dụng cho các kết quả nghiên cứu, trừ khi bạn nói rằng bạn muốn chúng tôi giữ chúng.
Bạn cũng có thể từ chối trả lời bất kỳ câu hỏi nào mà bạn không muốn trong cuộc
phỏng vấn.

Tôi nên làm gì nếu tôi có thêm câu hỏi về sự tham gia của tôi trong nghiên cứu?
Người mà bạn cần liên hệ sẽ phụ thuộc vào bản chất yêu cầu của bạn. Nếu bạn muốn
biết thêm thông tin liên quan đến dự án này hoặc nếu bạn có bất kỳ vấn đề nào có thể
liên quan đến sự tham gia của bạn trong dự án, bạn có thể liên hệ với các nhà nghiên
cứu:

Thông tin liên lạc của nhóm nghiên cứu

319
 Họ và tên Melissa Jardine
Chức vụ Nghiên cứu sinh tiến sĩ
Điện thoại +61 417 374 070; +841227302734
Email [email protected]

Tôi nên làm gì nếu tôi có quan ngại về những rủi ro liên quan đến nghiên cứu
này?
Nếu bạn cần bất kỳ sự trợ giúp nào để giải quyết những tác hại, khó chịu hay bất tiện
phát sinh từ nghiên cứu này xin vui lòng liên hệ với các nhà nghiên cứu hoặc những
người sau đây. Họ sẽ thay mặt bạn để giải quyết bất kỳ quan ngại nào:

Học viện cảnh sát nhân dân

Chức vụ Cán bộ Khoa Sau đại học và Bồi dưỡng nâng cao, trung tá
Lâm Tiến Dũng
Địa chỉ Học viện cảnh sát nhân dân, Từ Liêm, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Điện thoại +84 128 8035777
Email [email protected]

Ban kiểm duyệt địa phương về đạo đức của nghiên cứu
Chức vụ Trưởng ban kiểm duyệt, tiến sĩ Khuất Thu Hồng
Địa chỉ Viện Nghiên cứu phát triển xã hội (ISDS), Phòng 1804, tầng
PH, tòa nhà The Garden, đường Mễ Trì, Từ Liêm, Hà Nội,
Việt Nam
Điện thoại +84.4.37820058
Email [email protected]

Người hướng dẫn tại địa phương

Chức vụ Người hướng dẫn tại địa phương, bà Khuất Thị Hải Oanh
Địa chỉ Trung tâm hỗ trợ sáng kiến phát triển cộng đồng (SCDI), 240
Mai Anh Tuấn, phường Thành Công, Quận Ba Đình, Hà Nội,
Việt Nam
Điện thoại +84 04 35720689
Email [email protected]

Nếu tôi có khiếu nại hoặc bất kỳ quan ngại nào về nghiên cứu này?
Nếu bạn có khiếu nại về bất kỳ khía cạnh nào của dự án, cách nó đang được tiến
hành, bạn có thể liên hệ:

Thông tin khiếu nại

Chức vụ Điều phối viên về Đạo đức của Nghiên cứu con người
Điện thoại + 61 2 9385 6222
Email [email protected]
Số HC tham HC15195
chiếu

Đơn chấp nhận của người tham gia

Tuyên bố của người tham gia

Tôi đã đọc Bản thông tin về nghiên cứu hoặc ai đó đã đọc cho tôi với ngôn ngữ
mà tôi hiểu được;

320
 Tôi hiểu được mục đích, nhiệm vụ và rủi ro của nghiên cứu được mô tả trong
dự án;

Tôi đã có một cơ hội để đặt câu hỏi và tôi hài lòng với câu trả lời tôi đã nhận;

Tôi tự nguyện đồng ý tham gia nghiên cứu này như mô tả và hiểu rằng tôi có
quyền rút lui bất cứ lúc nào trong suốt dự án và việc rút lui sẽ không ảnh hưởng
đến mối quan hệ của tôi với bất kỳ tổ chức nào có tên trong Bản thông tin
và/hoặc thành viên nhóm nghiên cứu;

Tôi hiểu rằng tôi sẽ nhận được một bản sao có chữ ký của tài liệu này để giữ;

Chữ ký của người tham gia

Họ và tên (in hoa)
Chữ ký

Ngày

Tuyên bố của nhà nghiên cứu*

Tôi đã đưa ra một giải thích bằng lời nói về nghiên cứu, các hoạt động nghiên
cứu và các rủi ro của nó và tôi tin rằng người tham gia đã hiểu lời giải thích

Chữ ký của nhà nghiên cứu*

Họ và tên (in hoa)
Chữ ký

Ngày

+ Một thành viên có trình độ thích hợp thuộc nhóm nghiên cứu phải cung cấp những lời
giải thích và thông tin liên quan đến nghiên cứu.

Lưu ý: Tất cả các bên ký kết phải ghi rõ ngày tháng mình ký.

Đơn rút lui khỏi nghiên cứu

Tôi muốn RÚT LẠI sự đồng ý tham gia của mình vào dự án nghiên cứu được mô tả ở
trên và hiểu rằng sự rút lui SẼ KHÔNG ảnh hưởng đến mối quan hệ của tôi với Đại
học New South Wales hoặc các chuyên gia khác.

Chữ ký của người tham gia

Họ và tên (in hoa)
Chữ ký

Ngày

Nội dung rút lui khỏi nghiên cứu cần được chuyển tới:
Trưởng nhóm nghiên cứu: Giáo sư Janet Chan
Email: [email protected]
Điện thoại: +61 2 9385 2753

321
 Địa chỉ bưu điện: Tòa nhà Khoa Luật
Trường Đại học New South Wales - Úc
Nhà F8, phố Union
Cơ sở Kensington của trường Đại học New South
Wales
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052
Nước Úc

Số HC: HC15195
Ngày: 14/09/2015

322
Appendix 4: Sample interview guides

Semi-structured interview guide: students

1. Why did you apply to become a police officer?

2. What is your Major/specialisation? What type of work will this Major prepare you
for after graduation?
3. What was your first day at the Academy like?
4. Please tell me about any internships you have completed. What did you do?
How did your colleagues treat you? How did the community treat you?
5. Questions regarding role of women
a. Are there different expectations of male and female students in the
Academy?
b. How do you feel about there being a 15% quota for female students at
the Academy?
c. Do you know if the People’s Police or the Academy has any policies on
expanding the role of women in policing?

6. What makes a ‘good’ police officer? What makes a ‘bad’ police officer?

7. What do you hope to achieve after you graduate from the Academy?

8. What do you think will be the most challenging aspects of your police work after
you graduate?

9. How would you define a professional police officer? What makes a police officer
professional?

10. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing police?

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Semi-structured interview guide: officers

1. Why did you become a police officer?

2. What is your Major/specialisation/area of work?

3. What are the key skills and characteristics you hope students develop during
the course of their training at the PPA?

4. What are the biggest challenges you face in preparing junior officers for
operational work?

5. Questions regarding role of women

a. Are there different expectations of male and female students in the
Academy?
b. How do you feel about there being a 15% quota for female students at
the Academy?
c. Do you know if the People’s Police or the Academy has any policies on
expanding the role of women in policing?
6. How do you keep up to date with new information to do your job?

7. What differences are there, if any, in the field training of police work compared
with what is taught in the academy?

8. What makes a ‘good’ police officer? What makes a ‘bad’ police officer?

9. How would you define a professional police officer? What makes a police officer
professional?

10. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing police?

324
Appendix 5: Letter of Approval from the People’s Police
Academy

325