Meet the Candidates: Dorchester County Sheriff
(CAMBRIDGE, Md) – After this November, there will be a new Sheriff in Dorchester County.
For the Republicans, it’s Retired Cambridge Police Chief, Mark Lewis, and for the Democrats, former School Resource Officer, Christine LaMonica.
We met with both and asked why they want to throw their hats in the race.
“I’ve been out a couple years, and I had a lot of people in the community come to me and ask me if I would run. It was their words and the words of the citizens around the county. It was just time for a change,” says Mark Lewis.
While Christine LaMonica tells WMDT, “I believe that the position, is a position of leadership and strength and public safety, but I also think that it’s a position where we have to learn to understand people, listen to people…”
One of the big issues we asked each candidate is how are they planning to cover so much ground across Dorchester County.
“I think about, substations. I love the idea of substations like the one we have in Vienna, where we’re able to, strategically place ourselves places not only to address calls for service and response times…” says Christine.
While Mark says, “What I’d like to do, manpower situation; I’d like to have six deputies on per shift, two in in north, two central and two south. That way, the two south deputies can back each other up. They don’t have too far to travel.”
Figuring out how to cover all of that ground in Dorchester County is one of the big issues in the sheriff’s race. But we also asked the sheriff’s candidates about another important issue, and that’s surrounding incidents of violence in the schools, like those that have happened at Cambridge South Dorchester High.
Issues that the Sheriff’s Office has responded to; and incidents both candidates have different approaches to.
Mark suggests, “I’d like to have a School Resource Officer in every school in the county right now. The sheriff covers both high schools and the middle school.”
“That goes back to me, to community resources, working within our community to establish relationships with those resources,” says Christine.
The Sheriff’s Office Candidates will meet in a candidate forum at the Chesapeake Grove Intergenerational Center in Cambridge on Tuesday, October 13th.
