Wicomico deputies ditch cars for motorcycles
Sheriff Mike Lewis has been a motorcycle enthusiast most of his life. When he was elected, many people assumed he would start up the department’s first motorcycle unit.
It took a while, but 10 years later the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office is the owner of two Harley-Davidson bikes.
“It’s overdue,” Lewis said. “It’s way overdue.”
The department was able to fund a motorcycle unit with money forfeited from drug cases in the county. The biggest case came from a van that Lewis stopped on his way to work one morning. Inside he found $46,000 in cash and occupants of the vehicle who were under investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Eventually, the Sheriff’s Office received the cash and it also auctioned off the van. Combined with other forfeiture money, it was enough to purchase two motorcycles for $43,088, plus extra for uniforms, equipment and training, said Capt. Babe Wilson. The total for everything was $53,656.
Lewis said the new bikes and his deputies will be visible at Delmarva Bike Week in September. In the past, he asked for traffic control help from motorcycle units from Worcester County and other law enforcement agencies across the state including the Maryland Transportation Authority Police and the sheriff’s offices in Queen Anne’s and Calvert counties.
The bikes are particularly good for community policing efforts because they allow deputies to get into neighborhoods and interact with residents, but they also allow riders to maneuver in and out of traffic, and get to accident scenes faster, said Lt. Ed Schreier of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, which started its motorcycle unit in 2014.
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Because operators are seated higher on a motorcycle compared to a car, it also allows deputies to see inside a vehicle to spot seat belt and cellphone violations, and being in the open air means they can smell burning marijuana, he said.
“It has so many benefits,” Schreier said. “It’s a great tool that officers have.”
Deputies 1st Class Steve Ray and Jeff Chase, two of three deputies who have undergone training for the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office, showed off the new bikes on a cold, blustery day this week. Both were motorcycle owners who rode for pleasure, and Lewis thinks they were a good choice for the unit.
“Anybody who rides in this kind of weather has got to be excited about motorcycles,” he said.
Ray called it the “hardest school I’ve ever gone through” in his 17 years in law enforcement, but both men say it was worth it.
“Everywhere we go, kids are giving us the thumbs up,” Chase said.
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The motorcycles are used for routine patrols but also as funeral escorts. They recently took part in the funeral procession for Lt. Steven R. Floyd, a Delaware corrections officer who was killed Feb. 2 in a prison uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna.
They also have been asked to participate in parades and help out at local upcoming events such as the OC Air Show and Pork in the Park.
“If there’s a weekend and there’s an event, the motor unit will probably be there,” Ray said.
Next week, four more members of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office will undergo training, joining the three who have already completed the school. For now, all of them will share the two motorcycles, but there is hope to add more in the future.
Ray and Chase think the unit will be a big hit with county residents. Everywhere they’ve been so far, people have come over to talk and take their photos.
“There are two kinds of people,” Ray said, “people who ride motorcycles and people who want to ride motorcycles.”
On Twitter @LizHolland5