A Viewer Writes: Questionable treatment of long tenure Wicomico County Sheriff Deputies

As I was enjoying my day at a local eatery I was shocked to learn of the treatment some long term Sheriff Deputies who were injured in the line of the duty and had returned to work on light duty were experiencing from their own Sheriff, Mike Lewis. Sheriff Mike Lewis and his staff notified the Deputies on light duty on December 31st that they would be required to do rotational 11 hour shift work starting on January 1st. In addition to changing the impacted Deputies Sheriff Mike Lewis also changed their reporting structure to have the long tenured Deputies (all with 20 or more years of service) to report to someone currently out of the line of command.

After hearing of this questionable leadership decision from Sheriff Mike Lewis I asked the eatery patrons was there any other questionable things that the long service employees endured. I was shocked with the response from the patrons. I was told of a few more questionable actions by the Wicomico County Sheriff Department. The major questionable action that was experience was that upon the return of the Deputies from Workers Compensation claims that the Deputies were forced to pay back over $600 a month which they were unaware of or could plan for.

Throughout the conversation I kept asking myself is this the way we treat Veterans and long service employees? I hope that we do not treat our civil servants this way after they put their life on the line day in and day out. Our Deputies are doing many jobs that we do not want to do nor provide them a thank you for doing. I believe we owe it to them and ourselves to hold Sheriff Mike Lewis and his staff accountable for the way that they are treating their employees who have been hurt in the line of duty and work every day to make Wicomico and the surrounding area better for you and I. Please join me in attempting to get better answers and treatment for our injured Deputies.

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