Sergeant Is First Challenger to Block in Sheriff’s Race : Election: John Stites says he wants to stand up for rank-and-file deputies. He blames the incumbent and other managers for sagging morale.

A patrol sergeant with 13 years experience in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has become the first challenger to ailing three-term incumbent Sherman Block in next year’s election.

John R. Stites II, 40, assigned to the Pico Rivera station, said he is entering the race to champion the interests of rank-and-file deputies in what he characterized as a mismanaged bureaucracy. Stites also pledged to work to get more deputies “out on the streets rather than behind desks.”

Block, 69, has been undergoing chemotherapy for lymphatic cancer but has said he intends to run for reelection. He is scheduled to hold his regular monthly news conference today.

Stites acknowledged that he is a political unknown, has never run for public office and has raised little money thus far. But his own informal survey, he said, led him to believe that he would have the support of as many as 70% of the department’s more than 7,000 uniformed personnel.

Comparing morale problems among the deputies to those among street officers with the Los Angeles Police Department, Stites said many deputies are upset with new policies that leave all citizen complaints against them on their records, even if those complaints are not justified.

“The rank and file are being hobbled by policies that haven’t been thought out,” he said. “Unfounded allegations shouldn’t be reflected against members with exemplary records. It casts a shadow against them.”

He added: “We shouldn’t sacrifice the deputies out of political necessity. There is police brutality, we have to recognize it, but we also have to realize that events happen quickly, and many people out there are confrontational. . . . Maybe some of the critics should ride along on patrol and see for themselves what the deputies face.”

At the same time, Stites said he was “strongly for facilitating citizen complaints” and had no problem with hiring more minority deputies.

“I support hiring the best-qualified personnel, putting the best persons on the streets to do the tough job we have to do,” he said.

In a recent interview, Stites was caustic about Block and the upper management of the Sheriff’s Department, calling them responsible for “an entire decision-making process that’s fallen apart” during the “department’s downfall in the past several years.”

He also accused management of catering to special interests but did not offer specifics. But, he said, “I believe our management ranks need to be reduced.”

Stites, who is married and has three daughters and two sons, was born in Indianapolis and moved with his parents to the Los Angeles area in 1959. He attended Garfield High School and received a bachelor’s degree in public administration in criminal justice from National University in San Diego in 1989.