Internationally renowned Chinese actor Jackie Chan will appear in an advertisement made by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to encourage Asian Americans to join the police force, officials here said Saturday.

County Sheriff Lee Baca is hoping the Hong Kong-born star, whose mixture of slapstick, swift-footed martial arts and death-defying stunts helped him gain popularity with American audiences --will win over Asians in his latest flick, a public service ad aimed at recruiting minorities to the force.

Chan told a news conference at the Sheriff's Headquarters that he was honored to be a police ambassador in America for the first time.

The advertisement, to be shown during recruitment fairs and other events, will feature Chan getting out of a squad car and wearing a sheriff's deputy uniform, urging potential recruits to join the force and "doing his own stunts, as usual," said sheriff's Deputy Luis Castro.

Castro said that Chan as an icon is well known and looked up to in all communities, not just the Asian community.

According to the official, of the 10 million people in Los Angeles County, about 20 percent are Asian, while most sheriff's deputies are white, followed by Hispanics and blacks.

The number of Asian deputies "is at the lower end," and Native Americans rank last, Castro said.

Editor: Donald