A Memo From Richard Davis
President/Second Chance Body Armor
Founder of the Soft, Concealable Body Armor Industry and Original Patent Holder
Recent coverage by national media of the over 15-month old story of Zylon fiber degradation suggests Second Chance should have acted sooner than we did in sounding the alarm.
It also purports that our Zylon based armor was responsible for the wounding of one police officer and the death of another, in spite of contrary information supplied by Second Chance.
Lastly, it cites former Second Chance police trainer and sociologist, Aaron Westrick, as a soft body armor ?expert,? who warned me about the Zylon problem in December, 2001 but continued to promote it until August 2003.
Toyobo?s high-powered public relations firm in Washington, D.C. has been working hard to ?spin? things regardless of the facts. So ...
Please allow me to set the record straight:
FACT - Second Chance was the only body armor company to discover the Zylon problem because we were the only ones testing used Zylon vests. This testing was done in two phases, starting in 2001 and winding up late summer 2003. It was the 2003 test results that first indicated an officer safety problem and caused us to act immediately.
FACT - In September of 2003, we then voluntarily and publicly announced our findings, and immediately launched a three-option remedy program to keep our customers safe. To date we have remedied almost 90,000 used Zylon vests. The extraordinary costs of these remedies and the various tort actions attacking our officer safety initiative, have forced Second Chance to seek Chapter 11 reorganization protection.
FACT Only one other body armor manufacturer has admitted to a Zylon durability problem. The rest of the industry is still silent, and most are still using Zylon.
FACT - The wounding of one Pennsylvania officer is still under investigation. The National Institute of Justice has determined that Zylon fiber strength in the six-month old vest had degraded by 30%. However, a definitive cause of penetration has not yet been determined. Seventeen months following the shooting, NIJ has been unable to recreate the event.
FACT - The officer who was murdered on the West Coast suffered at least 13 wounds from the assailant?s and officer?s own 9mm handguns. Our Second Chance family grieves, but his vest did not fail. Two shots just on the edge of the armor either penetrated or pushed the armor aside. A third shot, a mere 1.5 inches from the edge, was stopped by the armor, demonstrating the capability of the armor. Soft body armor cannot predictably stop ballistic impacts near its edges. For that reason, NIJ certification standards require fair shots must be placed a minimum of 3 inches from the soft armor edge.
FACT Until October of 2003 Toyobo had only been reporting accelerated aging data on raw Zylon fiber and could not tell our industry what these data meant. Seemingly lost in all this ongoing barrage of charges and counter charges, is the fact that new data was revealed in October of 2003. One month after our public disclosure, on the advice of legal counsel, Toyobo revealed it had been conducting aging tests on woven Zylon fabric since 2001. These data showed a greater and more rapid degradation than Toyobo?s prior fiber disclosures and could have been made available by late 2001. Toyobo admitted it kept its results secret until after we announced the Zylon problem. We immediately disclosed this information to the body armor industry and public.
Regarding Westrick?s recent allegations against Second Chance and media?s gross misrepresentation of his position at Second ChanceS.
FACT Westrick was never a soft body armor expert. He?s a sociologist, primarily hired to conduct training seminars for law enforcement. Originally he did behavioral research to partly support his PhD thesis. Later, he was also involved in evaluating hard armor products designed by others.
FACT Westrick?s December 2001 memo was meaningless because he didn?t have access to the current used Zylon vest testing data our soft body armor technology department was sharing with our executive committee. Westrick was never considered a member of the executive team.
FACT - The Toyobo Zylon data that precipitated Westrick?s December 2001 memo to me, resulted from an industry posting by Toyobo in November 2001. The data reliability was already under serious discussion between Toyobo and Second Chance executives at that time. It was rescinded and corrected by Toyobo in January 2002 with apologies.
FACT Between December of 2001 and August of 2003, Westrick continued to promote Zylon body armor. Second Chance records show that he personally ordered at least 101 Zylon vests. These were distributed at his direction to law enforcement. Any concerns he had about Zylon were obviously short lived.
Since 1972 we have independently documented the SAVES of more than 946 law enforcement officers (including 51 with our Zylon-based body armor). It is a record we?re proud of. Officer safety is a mission we take seriously. The degradation of Zylon is an industry-wide issue, and we will continue to press our case---while manufacturing the world?s best and most wearable aramid fiber personal body armor. The media should be cautioned that sensational publicity about soft body armor could have two dangerous effects. First, it can encourage felons to consciously shoot around the armor. Second, it can cause loss of confidence, leading to officers not wearing their armor. That?s why traditionally the body armor industry has been a quiet one.
Thank you for your continuing loyalty.
Richard C. Davis
President
Second Chance Body Armor, Inc.
Central Lake, Mich.