Deputies Union Criticizes Sheriff for Comments After Slaying

As condolences poured in for the family of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hoenig, who was shot to death while on patrol alone, the deputies union on Friday sharply criticized Sheriff Sherman Block for insisting that deputies are as safe without partners.

The sheriff’s “claims regarding officer safety sound hollow in the wake of yet another tragic shooting fatality of one of our members,” Pete Brodie, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, wrote in a letter issued Friday.

“It has apparently been far too long since Sheriff Block rode in a patrol car.”

Block had said Thursday that deputies who ride alone--the norm for officers, like Hoenig, assigned to traffic patrol--are as safe as officers who ride with partners. Block suggested that officers who patrol solo are more alert because they do not rely on a partner to back them up.

“Unless the sheriff can personally guarantee that no more of our members will be blindsided while on patrol in a one-officer car, he should refrain from making broad statements and poor assumptions about the relative safety of our members,” Brodie wrote.

Block could not be reached for comment Friday.

Brodie stopped short of openly calling for increased staffing in traffic and patrol cars, but some sheriff’s officials acknowledged that many deputies feel vulnerable while riding alone.

“I think any deputy would prefer to have two or three or four guys in the car,” said Capt. Art Herrera of the sheriff’s Century Station, where Hoenig had worked on traffic patrol since 1994. But Herrera said the one-person patrol cars are “the accepted practice.”

Robert Hoenig, the slain deputy’s father, said Friday that the time has come to provide deputies with partners.

“I think they should outlaw one-man cars,” said Robert Hoenig, 63, a retired schoolteacher and printer. “There is no way two officers would have been shot down like Michael was shot down.”

Enrique Parra Duenas, arrested Thursday in the slaying, is to be arraigned Monday on a charge of murder, officials said.

Meanwhile, flowers and other signs of support poured into the Hoenig home in the San Gabriel Valley.

Robert Hoenig expressed thanks to the Sheriff’s Department and South Gate residents who had placed candles and bouquets at the spot where his son was killed.

The slain deputy is survived by his parents, Robert and Mary, and three siblings, David, Georgia and Steven.

Sheriff’s officials said a viewing would be held Nov. 4 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina and that Hoenig’s funeral would be at 10 a.m. the next day at Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar.

Robert Hoenig said that although his son liked his job, he would have preferred a career as a firefighter. His parents found unmailed applications to several fire departments on his desk.

An avid outdoorsman, he had visited Mt. Rushmore earlier this year with his girlfriend, whom he had met through a local community service organization. Hoenig was considering leaving Southern California for a home closer to the wilderness, his father said.

And, Robert Hoenig said, Michael had another reason for wanting to change jobs--he had had premonitions of his death while working in law enforcement.

He said Michael had repeatedly tried to transfer from the Century Station in Lynwood, one of the most dangerous jurisdictions in the department.

“He had said many times he wouldn’t live long in law enforcement,” Robert Hoenig said. “Michael enjoyed what he did. But he was trying to get out of it.”