ENCRYPTION UPDATE AND STATEMENT ABOUT WICOMICO COUNTY SHERIFF MIKE LEWIS

On October 21, 2023, we were informed by Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli that the Sheriff's Office would be encrypting their radio signals and preventing the public from having access to their frequencies.

After a negative response to Sheriff Crisafulli's statement and outcry from the community, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis attempted to come to the rescue of Sheriff Crisafulli and made a statement on Eastern Shore Undercover, informing the community that the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office would also be encrypting their channels, in essence shutting off Eastern Shore Undercover's ability to continue to operate in the same manner that we have over the past 3.5 years.

Many people have questioned if I have given up on the whole encryption fight due to not really talking about it over the past few weeks. Let me be abundantly clear that I have not given up on the hope of a resolution to the entire encryption issue, both in Wicomico and in Worcester, however, there is only so much that we can do on our end, in such a small amount of time. 

We have to sort of sit back and hope that cooler heads will prevail and common sense will come through to allow us to continue to provide the service to our community in the same fashion and in the same manner as we have over the past 3.5 years, all while working diligently with politicians, both on the local and state level, for an agreeable resolution. 

If you want to know my personal opinion, I do think we will lose the ability to hear the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office and Worcester County Sheriff's Office incidents. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it, it is what it is. These two sheriffs have taken away a valuable part of providing information to our community for invalid reasons.

I have been told many reasons such as this is due to officer safety because law enforcement is finding criminals with scanners. I've been told that criminals were listening to online apps that provide coverage of the local Sheriff's Office. I've even been told that a particular council member feels that Eastern Shore Undercover can have an impact on the local election when the time comes. 

All of these reasons are just nonsense, and there is absolutely NO evidence of any reason that has been provided. Let me explain.... 

1. I have done FOIA and found that in 2023, there have been NO scanners recovered or mentioned in a report in the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office. I have requested the same information from the Worcester County Sheriff's Office however I have not received their official response. I have however information that leads me to believe we will find the same in Worcester County. 

2. Many people claim that you can listen to the two sheriff's departments on online apps. While it is true you can listen to fire and EMS calls here on the shore on some local apps, there are NO apps that provide online duplication of the frequency and transmission of the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office or Worcester County Sheriff's Office.  

3. If we are concerned about an election....... well, I can tell you 100% that we will be influential when it comes time to endorse a candidate however much like in years past, we will not be negative towards any candidate, only share the reasons why we support candidate X over candidate Z.  Transparency will be a factor and those who care about providing our community with information, will get our support. 

In reference to Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli, I don't have much to say. I think he was misled with information. I think he made a rash decision and truly didn't think things through, and I think he didn't take into consideration the impact that Eastern Shore Undercover has on his community before making his decision to encrypt the frequencies. I think his decision was based on bad information.  

And then there is Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis...... 

Many people believe the statement made by Sheriff Lewis was more of a vindictive move not truly in regards to officer safety but much more of a means of solving a personal issue that he has with Eastern Shore Under. Sheriff Lewis mentioned in the comment he left on Eastern Shore Undercover, as well as in previous emails, that he was upset with the fact that people contact him directly for information when something is posted on Eastern Shore Undercover. 

Sorry Sheriff, but you ran for political office, not me, and you gave out your phone number, not Eastern Shore Undercover! 

My biggest concern with getting into this battle was the fact that I was under the belief, that Sheriff Lewis was untouchable because of his reputation and how people viewed him......... but I was wrong, and that couldn't be further from the truth!

Many people, including myself, have looked at Sheriff Lewis as a legend in law enforcement, an icon among people who wear the badge, and someone who at one time, was very much respected in the community, but there comes a time when all the shine begins to tarnish, and sparkle begins to fade, and the man that was once looked up to in the industry, loses all respect of not only his very own agency, but also the community he serves.

Over the past 8 weeks, I have been contacted by, and spoken to, Wicomico County Sheriff's Deputies, both current and former, and civil employees who at one time or another have worked for Sheriff Lewis, who have provided me with enough information to write an award-winning novel with a thousand pages. 

With that being said, when I started hearing the "stories" and "rumors" of everything from negligent spending, compensation, resignation reasons, workplace harassment, and various other stories that we heard, I started filing Public Information Act requests and obtained various documents to confirm or dispel the "rumors" I had heard.  

Freedom of Information and Public Information Act stuff is a wonderful way of proving certain things, all of which we will discuss down the road but this stuff takes time.  

Here is the reason for this post..... I know some people will say, we don't want to hear about this or that or the drama, etc, and in fairness, we don't want to hear about the complaining when we begin posting the information we have found.

EVERYTHING that we publish will be backed up with documentation to prove what we are saying. Some things will be published that many of you will be very shocked about, many of you will already be aware and not shocked at all, but if this is not the type of information you want to read, then either ignore the posts when they come out or unfollow the page. 

I am letting everyone know that in the coming weeks, we will be going public with many items about Sheriff Mike Lewis.  If you don't want to hear this type of information and if you are a closed-minded individual when it comes to certain elected officials, I would strongly suggest you unfollow the page, at least for the next few months. This is not what I wanted, but we have no other choice.  

Sheriff Lewis can bully a lot of people but I'm not one of them! Sheriff Lewis made this personal with his attempts to shut us down because he disagrees with people calling him after seeing a post on Eastern Shore Undercover.... no other reason!  

So in other words, instead of caring about transparency and making sure our community is informed and safe, he chose to just shut us down, so he isn't bothered. 

Again, we are appreciative of your presence here and for being a part of Eastern Shore Undercover however if you don't want to see what we have to say over the next few weeks/months, we encourage you to unfollow our social media pages.