As an immigrant who narrowly escaped South Vietnam after the war, Sgt. Phuong Pham has served the City of Westminster, California, for over 22 years, mediating between police and the city’s robust Vietnamese community.
Over the years, he has been this bridge despite budget cuts to the city’s police force and rapid crime rate increases. He’s turned down more lucrative job offers from other agencies. Westminster is his community, he says.
Whoever you talk with on the force says Westminster is lucky to have Pham.
A screenshot of Westminster Police Sgt. Phuong Pham sharing a message with the Vietnamese community on PHO BOLSA TV on April 1, 2020. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
As communism and famine continued to plague South Vietnam, Pham and his father boarded a small fishing boat near Saigon in 1984, forced to flee—leaving his mother and sister behind after his father was imprisoned for six years by Communist forces. Pham was only 11 at the time and had nearly drowned during some of their 12 previous attempts….