The former sheriff, James Metts, decided to encrypt all radio traffic many years ago. At least one of his arguments for encryption involved the infamous kidnapping and murder of Shari Smith by serial killer Larry Gene Bell. Per old articles, he said media monitoring of radio traffic made it more difficult for the killer to be caught (which may be true). During that time, Lexington Co. SD was on UHF analog conventional channels.
When they decided to encrypt on the old Palmetto 800 system, the sheriff's department was sometimes called the Lexington County Secret Police and there were accusations that the sheriff was hiding something. Interestingly, Metts just got out of federal prison for accepting bribes while he was sheriff...
I am unaware of any comment from the "new" sheriff about whether he considered halting encryption on the new system. I don't see many agencies deciding to reverse encryption decisions.