WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. -- A controversial memorandum of understanding between Wicomico County and a popular Facebook page has been put on pause. At the end of July, County Executive Julie Giordano gave the owner of Eastern Shore Undercover a radio to access encrypted police chatter.
Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis spoke at work session on Tuesday night, making his frustrations on the topic well known.
On Thursday afternoon, Giordano held a press conference, addressing the sheriff's comments and this entire situation.
Giordano pushed back against some of Lewis' comments, including a denial of Lewis' claim that he was never contacted about the memorandum of understanding.
"This is absolutely false," said Giordano. "As soon as the potential issue was brought to me I emailed not just the sheriff, but his entire command staff on June 24th."
Lewis said he did receive the email, but the communication stopped there.
"The emails never requested a response from me, the emails never requested a meeting with me, the emails never requested a phone call with me," said Lewis. "She never requested any further correspondence with me or my office regarding encryption, period."
Giordano said the agreement was done in the sake of transparency.
"To me, information is key and getting the information out to the public as quickly as possible, I would hope that nobody would argue to think that that's not beneficial," said Giordano.
By allowing Eastern Shore Undercover access to encrypted channels, Giordano argued his large online following would be better informed to serious issues.
"The benefits are, there's a missing child and we can have 103,000 people looking for that missing child," said Giordano. "We can have 103,000 people looking for a missing pet, when there's a gunman outside you know to not leave your house."
Lewis argued privacy should take precedent.
"No one deserves to have their names, their dates of birth and their medical information disseminated over a radio where average Joe Blow citizens can not only hear it, but immediately exploit it and sensationalize it," said Lewis.
The memorandum of understanding is not "dissolved" according to Giordano, but it on pause until further notice.
Sheriff Lewis added that Giordano had four encrypted radios in her office. That included the one given to the owner of Eastern Shore Undercover.
As of Thursday afternoon, Lewis told us all of the radios were seized and are back in the possession of the sheriff's office.