Saw Lar Htoo has become the first Karen refugee to graduate as a police officer in the United States.

Born in Burma, he fled with his family to a refugee camp along the Thai border when he was three years of age. He spent the next 15 years there.

He and his family took resettlement to the US in 2009 when they moved to St. Paul in Minnesota.

Following high school, the young Karen graduated from Hennepin County Technical College, specialising in law enforcement.

Expressing a strong desire to become a police officer, he joined the training programme at St. Paul’s Police Force.

Saw Lar Htoo was all smiles at his graduation ceremony on 18 December. He will now accompany a senior officer in the field for 16 weeks before he takes on crime in Minneapolis.

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