As I indicated in my last post, I have started to contribute to a site called The Crime Report. I was reading their interview with International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Michael Carroll and fell off my chair.
According to Carroll, 60 percent of police chiefs do not require their officers to wear bullet resistant vests. If this is accurate, then all of them should be fired. Today. There is no excuse.
I have heard all the arguments:
“Its not comfortable”
“Its too hot”
“I can’t move in it, so in fact it is less safe.”
“They are so expensive”
Please, cut me a freakin break. Thousands of lives have been saved by vests. Officers in the Arizona desert wear them, and countless officers have been involved in hand-to-hand encounters wearing them and survived. There is no excuse.
Now, the money thing is interesting. A good vest costs close to $1000.00. So I can see a small town struggling with that budget reality. The fact is there are grant programs to buy them, and if your department has even one car, one radio, and one jail cell, then you can make cuts to get a vest for your one cop. There is no excuse.
If any of you are working right now and do not have a vest on, please go get it. If you are not provided one, please make some noise. And please write back and let me know what your department / chief thinks of wearing a vest…
You’re right. Grants are a simple fix for the expense problem. The officers who decide not to wear vests are putting their partners at risk. Even if they do cost close to a grand, that’s a small insurance price to pay to increase you’re odds of going home at night. Nice title, too.
I especially like what you had to say about partners. I should have thought to place that in the post as well. If I am not wearing a vest, I do endanger the officers at the post, and that is not fair to them. Thank you for pointing that out…
Managed to stick this on the post below this one somehow. Sorry about that.
When I started twenty + years ago they didn’t issue vests or provide funding for them. You could get suspended quick-like if you got out of your cruiser without wearing that ridiculous milkman hat, though.
I was fortunate that I had a Second Chance Level II vest from prior employment. I stopped wearing it halfway through my FTO training because it was hot and uncomfortable. We hit the local family owned convenience store to grab a soda and the nice elderly lady we spoke with everyday decides to ask me if I’m wearing my vest. I tell her no and give her my reasons. She proceeds to give me a dressing down that would have done any Marine drill instructor proud. I’ve worn a vest everyday since that day. Heck, if she cared that much about it, who am I to question it.
The dept. finally started payroll deductions to pay for vests and it was up to you whether you wore it or not. After a few years of that they stepped up and started issuing them with the accompanying policy requiring you to wear it.
I think that is a great story! I would love to meet her. Payroll deductions were a good start, and then they came around. I am glad you are still with us…
What I like about this story is that civilians can make a difference. If they inform themselves, I mean.
I’d like to see a video of PC falling out of a chair!
hahahaha
60 percent of police should be fired?!?!? Well, half of that statement is true. All I know is that if someone said, ’60 percent of police’, that wouldn’t make very much sense.
Late last year I attend another training seminar for my department. Normally these events are forgetful but there was a retired officer from Indiana named Larry Danaher who spoke on this very subject. Acoording to Danaher most chiefs fit the personality of the mayor and generally are average cops at best. Larry Danaher said you pick the most capable “yes man” you can find to serve as your chief. Danaher went on to say that the local Chief of Police is as political as any mayor or city council person. They are neck deep into the local political muck and most strive, especially smaller municipalities, to be mayor. To paraphrase Danahers’ words, “It is a necessary function of modernday American law enforcement.”
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