Just so you understand my position. No one is guilty of any crime until proven guilty. I do not even know if anyone was charged in this overall issue, and there have been no announced convictions. There was an investigation of issues surrounding the theft of items from a shed and later collection of firearms from a private citizen. Was everything in all this handled properly? I have no idea. Could it have been handled better? Perhaps. 

However, being a strong supporter of law enforcement and the Ocean Pines Police Department, I believe the investigation of these events by the Worcester County Sheriff's Department was done in a professional manner unless there are provable facts to the contrary. 

As of now, the only public inside information is what Chris Tarr said in that podcast. In my opinion, what he said is not reflective of what a professional police officer should be saying in the public arena; or how a professional police officer should talk publicly about others he deals with in law enforcement.

Obviously, there was a great deal of tension in the Ocean Pines Police Department as these events unfolded. People with decades-long relationships were involved. Tempers obviously flared.

In my view, police officers should not be on social media or forums like this expressing opinions about issues that transpire in their departments unless cleared to do so by superiors. Frankly, when police officers do so without authorization they undermine public confidence and perhaps even make citizens afraid to express opinions.

This community is extremely hopeful Chief Tim Robinson will bring the Ocean Pines Police Department out of the shadows of recent events. He seems to be an ideal man for the position. Whatever transpired in the recent past, Tarr did law enforcement no favor with the podcast interview he did.

Allow me to address some specifics in your post to me:

Which I can verify personally that in fact Ocean Pines has got a bad reputation and a lot of people have reconsidered working for the Pines BECAUSE of the investigation and long before Sgt Tarr did this podcast.

Are you by chance the Detective Bailey that Chris Tarr mentions a couple of times in his podcast interview?

Plus where did he trash just about everyone? I’m a little confused on that statement. Sure some of the board members but as far as people he actually worked with? You made this article sound like he went down the line and spoke about everyone….fake news and poor journalism….do better and actually look into his account…prove him wrong if you think he is.

First of all, it is not my obligation to prove anything about what Tarr had to say in that podcast.

A careful listening to the interview reveals the following (note that at times the names of the people he mentions are not clear but their positions genenerally are. The actual names are not that important to consider what Tarr said):

Tarr mentioned OPA board member Rick Farr in a disparaging manner, along with the entire Board of Directors, in general. Your comment seems to indicate that is something perfectly OK for an OP police officer to do.

Tarr went after the OPA General Manager and the OPA human resources person. He went after the OP police dispatcher. He went after two or more people at the Worcester County Sheriff's Department. He generally accused the entire OPA police Department of mishandling the shed theft investigation. Let's look in more detail.

Tarr accused the Ocean Pines police department of not handling the shed break-in properly. He said, "Leo should’ve never been contacted first that’s where it’s confusing to me. I know that Leo has, you know, an open door policy with everybody but for something like that, yes, he should’ve been notified but he should’ve been third or fourth to be notified. First should’ve been Lieutenant Thom (???) and Detective Bailey or myself even."

Tarr is then asked who was actually investigating the shed break-in. He replies, "Nobody was doing the investigation. That was where I was so confused...... I felt like this needed to be handled and it wasn’t taken seriously...."

Surely any reasonable person must conclude such remarks from Tarr make his fellow officers and department staff look bad.

Tarr is asked why he was suspended and this is where the issue beyond the shed comes into play.

He says, "Leo asked me one day to go with him to a citizen's house to collect firearms from her that she was surrendering to the department. So, I’m not sure of the details of if it was her husband’s firearms or if he passed away. I just knew that Leo knew this lady very well.”

Included were a shotgun, an assault rifle, and some 400 shotgun shells.

Tarr replies to why he was suspended, saying, "I mean you could say I was suspended because I was close to Leo. I was suspended because I had the shotgun at my house. I was suspended because Officer Dalton had the AR at his house, and there was no record of it because at this time he was no longer working with Ocean Pines Police Department. I did not know he had the firearm. And he had a firearm that supposedly belonged to the Ocean Pines Police Department. So for him not being an employee with Ocean Pines .... that’s a problem. So I understood how it looked, but I had no idea he had the firearm. So I was very confused on why I was suspended and why I was being lumped into this, but it eventually came out later on."

Then we have Tarr mention "Investigator Rob Price" from the Worcester County Sheriff's Department. Tarr says the following about Price, a man he said he knew for 20 years: "He (Price) showed up at my doorstep one day, and he did sound awful accusatory, and he said I was being dishonest, and you know he swears he never said the L word, he never called me a liar, but he said I was being dishonest and not very forthcoming with information and I told him everything."

Tarr is then asked about the Assault Rifle. He replied, "Yes, the assault rifle, actually right now, the original owner has it. The lady that surrendered them actually has the rifle. It ended up Officer Dalton did have it, and Rob Price coordinated with him somehow to meet up and get that assault rifle. And then ended up at our Police Department for a little while, and then to the sheriff's office for a little while, but now the original owner has the assault rifle. The only problem is that the assault rifle is missing the scope that was on it, so Dalton is now gone but he’s not in trouble."

Tarr is asked why he was suspended. He replies, "When I was suspended I was told by Lieutenant Carmen (????) the acting chief that there were two investigations going on. There was one involving the shed in the breaking of the shed and there was one involving a citizen's firearms and the paperwork that I received when I was suspended was for the misuse of a citizen's, firearms and the violation of a nondisclosure agreement."

He added, "I was being charged with going to the department and talking about the situation of Rob Price coming to my house and questioning me and I was never told that I could not talk about that. And then also they said I was being disrespectful to the supervisor (Price). He works for a different department and we’re actually the same rank so he’s not my supervisor in the least."

Tarr says, "But I always felt like the sheriff's office thought that I was being dishonest for some reason.... as far as my investigation goes what they were trying to get out of me was that Chief Leo allowed Dalton to keep that assault rifle and allowed me to keep a shotgun in my house."

Again and again, the Worcester County Sheriff's Office is mentioned in a bad light.

Then Tarr raised a question as to whether two OP police lieutenants were doing their job, saying: "There’s no intentional wrongdoing on Leo’s part. Technically we have two lieutenants. It says in our policy they are supposed to do a complete inventory of our police department every six months. So the contents of the shed - everybody should know what was in that because our two lieutenant should’ve been doing their job."

So, after eight weeks of suspension with pay, Tarr comes back to work. He says of that return time: "I’m hearing the rumors that the board wants to get rid of Leo, and the board's holding closed meetings about this now. We’re hearing some of the board members are trying to trash Leo’s reputation, telling homeowners that Leo is going down. Leo is going to be arrested. There are charges coming in. I heard the board Director Rick Farr is texting people posting on social media that Leo is going to be arrested."

Note that Tarr offers no proof of all this, just that he is hearing "rumors." 

Tarr then speculates about Chief Ehrisman, "You have to wonder like what is really going on here in Ocean Pines. Who is out to get him? I remember reading an article in the paper saying that Leo was actually training Toppin (???) to take over for him just like Massey did for Leo when it was time for Massey to retire. I have so much respect for Lieutenant Toppin (???) and I’ve known him as long as I’ve been with Ocean Pines. He’s been my supervisor at times. You know he’s usually 100% there for everyone. I, as a matter fact, any new guy that comes in our police department. I say like he is the person you want to have the respect of. You know, if you have Toppin (????) respect, you know you’ve made it as far as Ocean Pines goes. But throughout this, I was really disappointed in Toppin (???) because he should’ve been standing up for Leo."

Another officer thrown under the bus by Tarr.

At one point Tarr makes disparaging comments about a department dispatcher.

Tarr then brings up a Lieutenant Cardamom (????) in Snow Hill, presumably in the Sheriff's Department. Tarr says, "He says to me, Chris everything that I reviewed in my investigation tells me that Chris Tarr tells the truth but also I can say that Leo Ehrisman is an effing liar."

At the end, Tarr says, "I love our law enforcement, and you know I’m always dedicated to be the best officer I can be."

Keep in mind that Chris Tarr was apparently still an Ocean Pines Police Officer when he gave that interview. As he said when asked, "Today is actually my last day with the Ocean Pines Police Department."

I will stand by my initial impression of the Tarr podcast:

If you are ever wondering how to quit your job and trash almost anyone and everyone you ever worked with, this is your guide to perfection.