Agency alliances best way to fight ‘lone wolf’ terror, Florida sheriff says

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings warned Congress on Wednesday terrorists have changed the way they operate by using people already in the U.S. as their soldiers.

Demings spoke before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing to explore how to prevent home-grown terrorism in “lonewolf” situations.

A lone wolf — such as Pulse shooter Omar Mateen — is one without direct ties to a terrorist organization, but is radicalized and attacks alone, he said.

“I do believe our nation has seen a paradigm shift ... and should not accept it as the new normal,” Demings said.

“Terrorists have brought fight to our homeland.” the

He recommended a multipronged strategy to helping law enforcement prevent and address acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.

“Like no other time in our history, if we are going to be successful at reducing the attacks on American citizens by violent extremists, federal, state and local authorities we must improve” working relationships Demings said.

He said distributing security information across federal, state and local authorities is crucial. He called for “the sharing of actionable intelligence information that can be used to identify and arrest subjects involved in plotting attacks before an attack occurs.”

Aside frombetter agency collaboration, Demings said more funding is needed to purchase tools and train officers to “prevent, respond to and mitigate domestic terrorist attacks.”

Since 2014, Demings and Orlando Police Chief John Mina have been working to get antiterrorism funds throughtheUrban Areas Security Initiative grant restored to the region. Orlando previously received about $45 million in federal dollars throughUASI.

On Wednesday, Demings asked to change the formula determining which urban areas receive funds.

“The funding received ... was critical to our region’s ability to prevent, respond to and recover from not only terrorism, but a broad range of other threats and hazards,” he said.

Demings said the moneywas used to do several things, such as paying for active shooter training, which he believes helped first responders in the June12 mass shooting.

The money also helped create the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, a multiagency crime information and analysis center to share insight among regional law enforcement agencies, but a reduction in funding has cut the number of analysts.

Demings suggested more fusion centers like CFIX should be created across the country to strengthen cross-agency relationships and ultimately fight terrorism.

“I believe that we have got to improve our analytical toolsand sharing information across our federal, state and local authorities,” he said. “It is a challenge for [local agencies] to identify the individuals who are a threat to our nation.”