By Jeremy Boren
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
PITTSBURGH — Simply stopping bullets isn’t good enough anymore for police body armor.
Vests packed with high-tech fabrics and diamond-hard plates must withstand abuse that includes 10 days of tumbling in a dryer heated to 150 degrees at 80 percent humidity, according to National Institute of Justice standards developed with input from O’Hara-based Mine Safety Appliances.
“Armor technology needs to keep up not only with what the police want, but with what’s on the street,” said Doug Campbell, MSA’s ballistic protection sales director and a police officer in Oakland, Calif., for 18 years.
To prove it, Campbell shot one of MSA’s vests at point-blank range with a Smith & Wesson 500 Magnum — the most powerful handgun available. The bullet dented, but didn’t penetrate, the clay-skinned mannequin wearing the vest.
The standards don’t require the vest to stop such a powerful round, “but they do anyway,” Campbell said.
“There are many individual law enforcement officers and many agencies that really are unaware that there has been a standard change, and what it means,” he said.
Pittsburgh police Officer Rob Harrison, range master at the city’s training academy, said he didn’t know about the stricter standards, but he’s pleased they’re in place.
“There are very few that do not wear (body armor),” Harrison said. Recruits often wear vests while training to acclimate to the weight and the way they pinch at the neck, armpits and waist.
Federal officials said departments aren’t required to upgrade immediately, but vests typically have a useful life of five years and are replaced as needed.
Tough tests
At its ballistic-testing laboratory in Cranberry, MSA shoots 96 bullets at test vests, 24 more than the standard requires, Campbell said.
“That provides the level of data points necessary to say ... our product is not going to fail. That’s what has hurt the industry, material failures,” Campbell said.
The rigorous testing resulted from lessons learned from the 2003 failure of body armor worn by Forest Hills Officer Ed Limbacher. A drug suspect shot Limbacher with a .40-caliber bullet that pierced the officer’s vest, lodged in his stomach and ended his police career.
The investigation found that Limbacher’s Second Chance Ultimate vest, made of Zylon synthetic fiber, lost 30 percent of its strength after seven months of normal wear and tear.
The vest was supposed to last five years, but standards then didn’t require companies to examine how protective qualities degraded under heat and wear.
It was the first time an NIJ-approved vest failed to protect an officer. It prompted a six-year effort to overhaul standards through the Body Armor Safety Initiative started in 2003 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.
“I think that, overall, we’re all better off because of that,” said Forest Hills police Sgt. Charles Williams, who heads the 10-member department. “Unfortunately, officers have to be injured to determine these things.”
Lawsuits and a 130,000-vest recall forced Second Chance into bankruptcy. Another company purchased it.
Williams said Forest Hills police are equipped with vests that meet the new standard, but he declined to name the brand.
New armor
Bob Miller, ballistic protection produce line manager for MSA, said the company’s experience in making military-grade helmets and fire gear prompted the company to begin manufacturing Paraclete body armor, the MSA brand name.
Depending on the use, vests are made of bullet-stopping, brand-name fibers such as Dyneema, Goldflex or Twaron. Some vests use multiple materials to protect users from being stabbed.
MSA purchased Paraclete Armor and Equipment Inc. of St. Paulis, N.C., in 2006.
“It fit the mission of MSA: to protect people’s lives when they go to work,” Miller said.
It also fit with the 95-year-old company’s experience with producing the advanced combat helmet for the military, which it has done since 2002. In March, MSA secured a two-year, $45 million contract to continue production of the ballistic helmet, which the Army Materiel Command named one of the 10 best inventions of 2002.
About 250 of MSA’s 5,000 employees work on making and developing bullet-resistant vests. MSA is one of 10 U.S. companies the government approved to produce body armor under the standards.
According to an April survey by Law and Order magazine, 55 percent of agencies require police officers to wear body armor, a figure close to that provided by NIJ officials.
Police agencies are beginning to receive new vests, which cost from $380 for a basic concealable vest to $3,500 for a tactical vest equipped with boron carbide plates that resist rifle bullets.
On Thursday, 185 of MSA’s vests arrived at the Waco, Texas, Police Department, the first customer to purchase this standard of vests. Waco police examined vests from seven companies, include MSA.
“We took them out to our firing range and shot all of the vests without looking to see who made them,” said Carinne Crider, a department planner. “This vest outperformed the others, and we were very happy with that.”
Copyright 2009 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review