Do the law enforcement officers in your area have the best body armor for the job your community asks of them? Police duty gear keeps the brave men and women who serve our cities and counties safe from the threats that they face daily. Here’s precisely why and what law enforcement officers need to be as safe as possible.
- Assaults on police officers are common. Government data reveals that in the last 10 years there have been about 60,000 assaults on police officers every single year. The FBI’s data shows that in 2016 there were 66 officers in law enforcement killed in the line of duty by criminals. Of those 66, 62 were attacked with firearms of some kind or another. Police safety is dependent, at least in part, upon the right types of body armor and tactical gear.
- Shootings are one of the primary reasons an office dies. The number one killer of police officers is motor vehicle crashes. The second leading cause of death, however, is a gunshot wound. Guns were the cause of one-third of all officer deaths in the last decade. Some of the officers who were shot were indeed wearing body armor when the assault took place, but 20% of those who died were shot with ammunition that was too powerful for the body armor. It’s not enough for our law enforcement officers to have bulletproof body armor. They need to have the right kind of body armor plates to keep them safe.
- Body armor really does work. The proof is in the pudding, so they say, and since 1978 New York City has reported 87 lives saved by bulletproof vests for police officers. For officers who do not wear armor vests, statistics show that their chance of dying from a gunshot wound is 3.4 times greater than for those who are wearing body armor. The statistics further show that in the last decade more than 3,000 police officers and other law enforcement agents have been saved by their armor vests.
- Communities are increasingly supporting their officers with body armor. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2013 more than 70% of all the police departments in the nation were requiring their officers to wear body armor at all times while on duty. This great statistic could be even greater if the remaining 30% of departments and communities were to provide the right kind of body armor and police safety gear to their officers.
Our law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep our communities and our children safe and secure. They work in the worst neighborhoods and risk the anger and violent response of criminals every time they intervene in a situation. Isn’t it time that every single officer in America had all the best gear we can give them to do their job as safely and effectively as possible?