EmailPrintTalk BackRegisterBookmarkRSSWhat's This

People and Personalities of Law Enforcement with PoliceOne Editorial Assistant Hannah Simon

P1 Exclusive: New body armor standards highlight importance of ''wearing your shield''

By Hannah Simon
PoliceOne staff writer

WASHINGTON – Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) announced a new performance standard for body armor at the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) annual conference in Arlington, Virginia.

These new body armor standards include more rigorous testing and methods that expose the equipment to temperature, humidity, as well as wear and tear – prior to testing performance.

"This important advancement in body armor standards is in direct response to changes in threats faced by law enforcement, advances in ballistic materials and technology, and the need to ensure that body armor performs well when subjected to environmental factors," said Associate Attorney General Kevin O''Connor. "Body armor standards are needed to ensure that law enforcement and corrections officers'' equipment provides a high level of safety and protection.”

The new standards were established in response to concerns from the law enforcement community about the effectiveness of body armor currently being used by officers. NIJ developed the enhanced testing program in partnership with the National Institute of Standards Technology, Office of Law Enforcement Standards.

The NIJ is encouraging all officers to continue to wear their body armor even if their current vests don’t meet the new standards.

“Just because they’ve come out with a new standard doesn’t invalidate the current standard,” Matt Davis, President and CEO of Armor Express says. “The reason they came out with an updated standard is to ensure that the law enforcement community is adequately protected from the threats they face. As the threats constantly change, so does the need to have newer standards for body armor.”

After new standards for body armor are released, armor available for sale must be submitted for testing at independent laboratories that have been certified by the NIJ. The armor is put through a series of tests to verify that it complies with performance standards, according to the NIJ website.

“We’ve submitted our current body armor models for research and development testing to the new standard. We then obtain the results from the testing laboratories and use those results as a benchmark to guide our future body armor designs,” Davis says. “One thing is certain – developing products that exceed the new standards is our research and development team’s top priority.”

The new standards, which supersede the August 2005 standards, have fairly significant modifications to the body armor requirements. Dr. Tim Smith, Director of Product Development for BAE Systems Products Group, explains that due to evolving technology and threats like new weapons and new ammunition, important considerations need to be taken into account.

“We are constantly doing research and development to improve our products,” Smith says. “We have been working diligently over the past year designing changes to body armor to meet and exceed the new standards.”

From a design standpoint, manufacturers understand that they need to engineer body armor that will ensure officer protection.

“Our real mission is officer safety, but we are committed to the challenge of getting the best gear at the most affordable prices,” Smith says. “It’s tremendously important that officers wear their body armor, and we’re making products that meet these new requirements.”

U.S. Armor Corporation General Manager Georg Olsen explains that the standard has some positive and negative long-term implications for America’s law enforcement community.

“U.S. Armor will make our armor products according to how the new standard dictates that we make them, because no responsible agency is going to buy armor that hasn’t been NIJ-certified,” Olsen says. “It is our professional opinion, after reviewing the new standard, that armor may be heavier and will certainly be costlier when made in compliance with the new testing requirements.”

PoliceOne columnist and Street Survival Seminar instructor Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith explains that the new body armor standard brings to light heightened awareness that there are good body armor products available and that officers need to be wearing them.

“The new standards may give officers a new level of comfort with their body armor. Also, it hopefully gives departments that nudge that they need to be providing body armor for their officers,” Smith says.

With police officer deaths recently attributed more to motor vehicle incidents than gunshot wounds, officers tend to not have body armor on their radar screen at all times. While they might think the likelihood of getting shot is reduced, the reality is that officers need to be wearing their vests at all time.

“In our Street Survival Seminar, we tell officers, ‘Warriors wear their shields, warriors wear their armor,’” Smith says. “Anyone who’s been saved by their body armor will tell you that it’s the best investment they’ve ever made. I encourage officers to take a look at what’s out there … there are so many different options and products. We need to get as excited about new body armor as we do about new handguns or patrol cars.”

More information:

 The comprehensive list of models compliant with the NIJ Standard is located on NIJ’s Justice Technology Center Network Website.

 More information on the new body armor Standard and the U.S. Department of Justice''s Body Armor Safety Initiative is available here.

 Read the full text for The Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor NIJ Standard – 0101.06 by Office of Law Enforcement Standards, National Institute of Standards and Technology, July 2008

EmailPrintTalk BackRegisterBookmarkRSSWhat's This