Report to the Attorney General on Body Armor Safety Initiative Testing and Activities
Abstract
On November 17, 2003, the Attorney General announced the US Department of Justice's Body Armor Safety Initiative As part of that initiative, he directed the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to undertake a comprehensive body armor testing program and provide a status report in 90 days. The following is a status report on the NIJ body armor testing currently underway. Lightweight body armor has been widely available for use by law enforcement personnel for close to 30 years. The lives of more than 2,700 police officers have been saved as a result of body armor. In the early 1970s, NIJ initiated a research program to investigate the development of lightweight body armor that police could wear full time. The NIJ development project was a four-phase effort that looked at Kevlar (trademark) fabric and whether it could stop a bullet, the number of layers of material necessary and factors that could degrade the armor (e.g., moisture, ultraviolet light, dry cleaning agents, etc.), medical testing to determine required performance levels of armor, and field testing to determine wearability and effectiveness. Field testing was conducted with 5,000 armors that were provided to 15 urban police departments. The first armor "save" occurred less than 6 months later, and during the 1-year demonstration period, 18 shooting incidents occurred in which body armor successfully protected the officers. Subsequently, and at the request of the law enforcement community, NIJ developed a voluntary body armor standards and testing program to verify the performance and safety of body armor. While NIJ's program relies on voluntary participation by manufacturers, most police departments require that armor be tested by NIJ and found in compliance with the NIJ standard before they will purchase the armor. The NIJ standard specifies minimum requirements that body armor must meet to be suitable for law enforcement use.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 11, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA484911
Entities
People
- Sarah V. Hart