BOONE HONORED FOR SONGS; POLICE GIVE SINGER ARCHANGEL AWARD.

Byline: Oscar Musibay Associated Press 

The inaugural Michael the Archangel Award was given to singer Pat Boone on Monday by a police advocacy group in honor of songs he recorded about officers injured or killed in the line of duty.

Boone was recognized by a group called the National Association of Chiefs of Police for songs such as ``Empty Uniform'' and ``A Part of America Died.''

Boone said he penned ``Won't Be Home Tonight,'' about an officer who is killed during a drug bust, in the aftermath of rioting in the 1960s and '70s.

``I wanted to humanize the police,'' Boone said. ``I wanted these songs to be played on the radio, to counteract the thinking that law enforcement is our enemy. We need to recognize that these people are risking their lives, their families' lives, their children's lives. They don't know whether they are going to make it home after a routine traffic stop or end up in the morgue.''

The award was especially poignant in light of a spate of recent attacks on Southern California officers, said Gerald Arenberg, executive director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

``I know the families and what they need,'' Arenberg said. ``They need respect.''

The NACOP and its sister organization, the American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens, has for two years sent families of slain officers a message of consolation that includes a tape of Boone's songs.

Last year, 160 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide, up from the 116 killed in 1996. California had 14 of the deaths.

The violence continued last week as Southern California recorded six attacks on law enforcement officer in three days.

An off-duty state corrections officer was shot to death late Saturday after four men chased her family's car off a freeway in Anaheim. Police said it appeared to be random violence, but the investigation was continuing.

In an unrelated incident, an off-duty Los Angeles officer was stabbed in the face early Saturday after asking a group of youths who crashed a family gathering to leave.

Four police officers and one officer's teen-age son were shot and wounded in three separate incidents in Southern California during a 24-hour period Thursday. Three of the officers and the teen-age boy remained hospitalized Monday. Police made no arrests.

None of the cases are related, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bob Killeen said.

``We're hoping it's just a bad streak we're having and not a growing trend,'' Killeen said. ``We don't think it is. It's been a very busy and bad week for us as a whole.''

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PHOTO Pat Boone, left, accepts an award from Gerald Arenberg, executive director of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, for recording songs about fallen officers.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News