Butler Co. Ohio Sheriff Richards Jones recently held a press briefing that has some nervous. The Sheriff attended the National Sheriff’s Association Winter Conference in Washington D.C. on Feb 3-7 and returned home saying “I want everyone to know what I know…We are in a terrible way right now.”

According to Sheriff Jones the President of the United States refuses to meet with the Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. However, the conference did receive a briefing from FBI Director Christopher Wray and several federal agencies.  Sheriff Jones says the gathering was warned that there were more potential terrorist threats now than leading up to the 9/11 attacks. These potential threats the federal officials claim are attributed to the US bombings in the Middle East, the unrest in Israel and Gaza and the illegal border crossings in the US.

Sheriff Jones says America is “on the defense” rather than offense. “We are sending weapons, money and treasure to foreign countries.” but doing little to protect our own country.  The Sheriff says that Butler county’s governmental systems were taken offline by a cyberattack leading to two-moths of “paper-only” operation. He says the outdated grid system is under threat as well as phone, internet and voting systems.

Additionally, Jones cited potential drone attacks as a threat.  He lamented the lack of defensive drone technology, “Everybody has drones, but we have no way of detecting them and the federal government isn’t sharing technology with us.” He says he has tasked his office to turn to the private sector for solutions.

The Sheriff says that he is pursuing offensive measures, including arming every patrol car with a rifle, extra magazines, and a go-bag. Additionally, he is implementing an emergency response training course for civilians conducted by Texas A&M.

Jones has also asked Ohio legislators Sara Carruthers and Cindy Abrams to file legislation in three areas:

• introduce a northern border interdiction task force
• create a full-time state cybersecurity czar
• make it a felony charge to be on illegal alien status in Ohio

Watch the full press conference here from WDTNTV Dayton: