Used vests- No. Virginia

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Used vests- No. Virginia

Posted: 11/17/2014 8:31:25 PM EDT

I thought I saw a post a long while back about donating used vests to other departments which can use them. A friend's department is updating their vests and he's collecting the old vests. He wanted to know if there was a department in Northern Virginia that was collecting them or some other collection point for them. Any help is appreciated!

Posted: 11/17/2014 8:41:42 PM EDT

[#1]

Armor of God

Posted: 11/17/2014 9:33:25 PM EDT

[#2]

Cedar County Missouri just had an officer shot and killed.
They have no issued armor. In lieu of flowers, the widow is asking for donations of armor for the deputies.

Posted: 11/18/2014 8:14:33 AM EDT

[#3]

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Quoted:
Cedar County Missouri just had an officer shot and killed.
They have no issued armor. In lieu of flowers, the widow is asking for donations of armor for the deputies.

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That is absolutely ridiculous. How does anyone think its acceptable to go on the street without armor.
I would never work for an agency that didnt issue something so basic as body armor.

Posted: 11/18/2014 8:21:43 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:

That is absolutely ridiculous. How does anyone think its acceptable to go on the street without armor.
I would never work for an agency that didnt issue something so basic as body armor.

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Quoted:

Quoted:
Cedar County Missouri just had an officer shot and killed.
They have no issued armor. In lieu of flowers, the widow is asking for donations of armor for the deputies.

That is absolutely ridiculous. How does anyone think its acceptable to go on the street without armor.
I would never work for an agency that didnt issue something so basic as body armor.

While it may be sad, there is nothing stopping someone from buying a vest themselves. Even people that are not in Law Enforcement do it and vests just are not THAT expensive. [I bought mine thru Galls on sale, it was very affordable.]

Posted: 11/18/2014 8:25:36 AM EDT

[#5]

govt programs where departments can buy armored vehicles, but depts still dont have armor?

Posted: 11/18/2014 11:36:53 AM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:

That is absolutely ridiculous. How does anyone think its acceptable to go on the street without armor.
I would never work for an agency that didnt issue something so basic as body armor.

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Cedar County Missouri just had an officer shot and killed.
They have no issued armor. In lieu of flowers, the widow is asking for donations of armor for the deputies.

That is absolutely ridiculous. How does anyone think its acceptable to go on the street without armor.
I would never work for an agency that didnt issue something so basic as body armor.

While I agree with you in principle, MANY smaller agencies in this country don't have the money to equip their officers with body armor. It's fine to say that they should provide armor but if the money isn't there....well it's just not there. You might be amazed at the number of extremely poor agencies nationwide who struggle to provide proper police services to their communities and whose officers learn to make due with very little.

Posted: 11/18/2014 1:52:08 PM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

While I agree with you in principle, MANY smaller agencies in this country don't have the money to equip their officers with body armor. It's fine to say that they should provide armor but if the money isn't there....well it's just not there. You might be amazed at the number of extremely poor agencies nationwide who struggle to provide proper police services to their communities and whose officers learn to make due with very little.

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That is just nothing more than an excuse small agencies use. The federal government has had a program in place since 1998, that will pay for 50% of armor for any agency that needs it. That puts a vest at $250 per LEO. I doubt many municipalities will have an issue coming up with that, and if they do, no cop should be dumb enough to go to work without shelling out the money himself or being creative and do some fund raisers to get the money. Give up the cigs, give up the dip, give up the alcohols and give up the eating out....and $250 will come quick to any pocket.

Posted: 11/18/2014 2:31:32 PM EDT

[#8]

Quote History

Quoted:

That is just nothing more than an excuse small agencies use. The federal government has had a program in place since 1998, that will pay for 50% of armor for any agency that needs it. That puts a vest at $250 per LEO. I doubt many municipalities will have an issue coming up with that, and if they do, no cop should be dumb enough to go to work without shelling out the money himself or being creative and do some fund raisers to get the money. Give up the cigs, give up the dip, give up the alcohols and give up the eating out....and $250 will come quick to any pocket.

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Quote History

Quoted:

While I agree with you in principle, MANY smaller agencies in this country don't have the money to equip their officers with body armor. It's fine to say that they should provide armor but if the money isn't there....well it's just not there. You might be amazed at the number of extremely poor agencies nationwide who struggle to provide proper police services to their communities and whose officers learn to make due with very little.

That is just nothing more than an excuse small agencies use. The federal government has had a program in place since 1998, that will pay for 50% of armor for any agency that needs it. That puts a vest at $250 per LEO. I doubt many municipalities will have an issue coming up with that, and if they do, no cop should be dumb enough to go to work without shelling out the money himself or being creative and do some fund raisers to get the money. Give up the cigs, give up the dip, give up the alcohols and give up the eating out....and $250 will come quick to any pocket.

This.

If you can't afford to equip your guys with something as basic as a vest, you probably shouldn't be employing those guys.

Posted: 11/18/2014 2:47:47 PM EDT

[#9]

The increase in insurance premiums from one wrongful death lawsuit for failing to provide body armor will pay for more than enough vests.

Administrators love to talk liability, except when it actually applies.

Posted: 11/18/2014 3:31:47 PM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
The increase in insurance premiums from one wrongful death lawsuit for failing to provide body armor will pay for more than enough vests.

Administrators love to talk liability, except when it actually applies.

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I know of a small agency that the bean counters (city elected officials) refused to provide training other than the state min. When the chief brought up the "failure to train" court cases, the council members basically said "that's what we have insurance for. If something bad happens, our insurance will pay"

That agency has had two officer involved shootings in the past few years....they still don't supply vests and they still don't have more training.

Posted: 11/19/2014 12:02:11 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:
I know of a small agency that the bean counters (city elected officials) refused to provide training other than the state min. When the chief brought up the "failure to train" court cases, the council members basically said "that's what we have insurance for. If something bad happens, our insurance will pay"

That agency has had two officer involved shootings in the past few years....they still don't supply vests and they still don't have more training.

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

The increase in insurance premiums from one wrongful death lawsuit for failing to provide body armor will pay for more than enough vests.

Administrators love to talk liability, except when it actually applies.

I know of a small agency that the bean counters (city elected officials) refused to provide training other than the state min. When the chief brought up the "failure to train" court cases, the council members basically said "that's what we have insurance for. If something bad happens, our insurance will pay"

That agency has had two officer involved shootings in the past few years....they still don't supply vests and they still don't have more training.

Hopefully everyone in that agency is looking for a new job. Good on the Chief for trying though.

Posted: 11/20/2014 3:30:34 AM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:

govt programs where departments can buy armored vehicles, but depts still dont have armor?

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Unfortunately, the DOD/DLA 1033 LESO Program has a policy against supplying any form of body armor. The DOD mandates that all turned-in armor must be destroyed. The nice DLA LESO folks at the Battle Creek, MI office don't like this policy either, but the DOD (Army) won't change it. They're worried about liability, so they'd rather offer nothing.

If you don't like that, please contact your CongressCritter and urge to have DOD relax that policy!

They wouldn't even give us these cool Ops-Core NVG Helmets that SOF had discarded because they were the IIIa shell version.

Posted: 11/21/2014 12:39:44 AM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
Cedar County Missouri just had an officer shot and killed.
They have no issued armor. In lieu of flowers, the widow is asking for donations of armor for the deputies.

View Quote

We are almost in 2015, and that is absolutely ridiculous. My institution used the federal grants to buy top quality vests for some of our officers. That's a damn shame that those officers aren't provided with the tools to do their job...