How effective are bullet-resistant vests for law enforcement?
In the past month, Colorado has seen two deputies killed in the line of duty. Both Adams County Deputy Heath Gumm and Douglas County Deputy Zackari Parrish were wearing vests as protection from gunfire when they were shot and killed.
Adams County Sheriff Mike McIntosh said Gumm was shot in the chest and doesn’t know right now whether Gumm’s vest failed or if a bullet came through an area the vest doesn’t cover.
“I’m wearing a vest, there are places on my person that are not protected by the vest,” McIntosh said.
Lt. Eric Carnell with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said deputies are required to wear vests. The basic vests they wear are expected to protect their vital organs but won’t protect them from every bullet.
“There is no magic ballistic vest,” Carnell said. “But those ballistic vests that they wear every day will protect them from certain levels of fire that they may encounter.”
The FBI’s statistics show that out of the 118 officers who died in the line of duty in 2016, 21 officers who wore body armor still received torso wounds.
The statistics show bullets struck those officers who wore body armor in the abdominal or back, through the side panels of the vest, through the armhole or shoulder and above the vest.
An incident was reported that a bullet penetrated through the vest, but did not penetrate because of vest failure.
Shield 616, a Colorado Springs non-profit, donated some vests to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. They can be put on to help protect against rifle rounds because standard vests won’t.
“It’s going to give them that enhanced protection that they need if they’re going up against maybe an elevated threat,” Shield616 President Jake Skifstad said.
Deputy Jason Haag said the Shield616 vests can help in critical moments before the SWAT team arrives.
“By the time the SWAT team gets here, patrol deputies have already been on that scene probably for an hour at least,” Haag said. “Those vests they are wearing, the Shield616 vests, have that protection before we get there.”
Even knowing the vests won’t stop everything, officers still take them on the job.
“You always have that chance of not coming home to your family,” Carnell said.
