I don't see how Sawyer as a cop fits with Sawyer as a con man in Australia. I'm just going to ignore it, though, and keep watching.
I didn't like that part of the episode that much, but that said, I'm surprised that so many people seem to consider Sawyer differently as a cop (and remember that he did wind up as a cop on the island). I do see one primary difference which I'll point out later... But he seems approximately the same to me in this scenario. As far as his personal demons and struggles for sure, but also as far as posing as something/someone he's really not. It seems, in effect, a con. In this case, he's wearing the mask of a cop. But can you really find all that much much that's different about Sawyer in this scenario as the con man scenario?
Consider how little he cared about criminal Kate escaping handcuffed at the airport. In fact, he got a kick out of it... He actually helped her out of the elevator with a smile on his face (with the smooth con man move of calling attention to her as he did it). Cop? Not really.
Sawyer/Ford's life drive & motivation has been to kill Anthony Cooper. It was as a con man, and it is as a cop. In either case, he is alone, consumed by the past, keeping "who he is" hidden away in a drawer, unable to "let go." He might seem somewhat happier on surface in this version of himself, but ultimately, he's obviously not. It's a facade.
I think [hope] that's why as I'd mentioned in another post, this LA scenario (primarily the introductory hotel scene revealing him as a cop) was so bizarrely over-the-top and cheesy. I saw it as conspicuously overly-dramatic and poorly acted (overly-dramatic in a different way than LOST typically is). It really was like a bad cop show, with all of the trappings. I half expected someone to yell "Cut! That's a wrap!" after Miles and police-crew stormed into the hotel room, with the camera pulling back to reveal it as a set. It
looked like a set. First I thought it was just poorly conceived and acted, but after watching it a 2nd time, I do think that it was intended that way. Or then again, maybe it was just cheesy. But did anyone notice the "Hollywood" mug he was drinking out of at the office?
Also as far as differences/similarities in character, as I'd said at the beginning, don't forget that Sawyer did wind up as a cop on the island. And he seemed at peace having settled into that new life. Granted, he was still involved in a facade. And in this new LA scenario, he obviously isn't at peace.
What did strike me as a big difference in this scenario was that while in either case (cop or con man), he was driven and trapped by the same thing (kill Cooper), the
choice he had made was towards the "right" side (cop) rather than the "wrong" side (criminal). It
seems that's because Jacob didn't interfere. He wasn't pushed in a direction by being given the pen to finish the letter, and he wound up making a different (more positive) choice. He took a different path. But at least so far, is he really all that different?