At Police1, we have been closely monitoring developments during the past year and a half regarding body armor safety and the use of Zylon in ballistic vests. Last week, the Department of Justice, released a supplemental report to their testing. The report is included below and details possible causes of body armor failure in an incident in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. The report also contains findings concerning the ballistic performance of upgrade kits for Zylon(R)-based armor manufactured by Second Chance Body Armor.
For more information on these issues, please be sure to visit our Zylon section, which outlines much of what has been published or released regarding this important topic.
Supplement I: Status Report to the Attorney General on Body Armor
Safety Initiative Testing and Activities
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On November 17, 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the Department of Justice’s Body Armor Safety Initiative in response to concerns from the law enforcement community regarding the effectiveness of their armor. He directed the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to implement a new initiative “to address the reliability of body armor...and to examine the future of bullet-resistant technology and testing.”
As part of the Attorney General’s directive, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) held a Body Armor Summit in March 2004. At the same time, NIJ released its report, “Status Report to the Attorney General on Body Armor Safety Initiative Testing and Activities.”
NIJ has recently submitted a supplemental report to the Attorney General detailing possible causes of body armor failure in an incident in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. The report also contains findings concerning the ballistic performance of upgrade kits for Zylon(R)-based armor manufactured by Second Chance Body Armor. A copy of this supplemental report is available online at:
https://vests.ojp.gov/docs/207605.pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
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Additional Information:
For more information please visit the Body Armor Safety Initiative web site at: https://vests.ojp.gov/