DHS is providing police with military ballistic shields and helmets.
Colorado Springs, CO - Police are using some new tactics and equipment to protect themselves in dangerous situations. In the past, you wouldn't see a Colorado Springs police officer with a ballistic shield, helmet and rifle on your average police call, but that's changed.
"It might look like SWAT activity is going on when, really, it's just patrol officers using some new equipment that's been made available to us over the last couple years," said Sgt. Darrin Abbink. "We've had quite a bit of training going on with our patrol officers to provide them with better officer safety tactics."
Abbink said, besides keeping officers safer, CSPD's training efforts also make for better coordination should the SWAT team have to be called to a crime scene.
"What you'll see is a more coordinated response between our officers," said Abbink. "They're getting to practice it more at training and they're getting more advanced training than just the basic skills."
Saxon Security to supply St. Petersburg police dept. with new ballistic shields.
Florida - Saxon Security and its partner LCOA Defense have been named suppliers to the St. Petersburg (Florida) police department for new ballistic shields for general patrol officers. Saxon’s winning proposal was chosen by the department’s procurement office and approved by the Chief of Police, Charles "Chuck" Harmon.
After an exhaustive year-long review of all available ballistic shields on the market, the St. Petersburg Police Department awarded their bid for 45 ballistic shields to Saxon Security for the DeadStop shield. The shields are the lightest on the market representing a revolution in safety for the general patrol officer.
In 2011, the St. Petersburg Police Department, with input from all their Officers, created a unique design for a new multi-use ballistic shield. With St. Petersburg’s guidance Saxon Security and LCOA Defense created the DeadStop Equalizer, inspired by St. Pete Officers for all patrol officers...the “St. Pete Shield.”
http://www.krdo.com/news/31124194/detail.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/saxon-security-supply-st-petersburg-190500904.html
We need ballistic helmets on patrol.
Stanley Cohen: "When it comes to the topic of officer safety, two personal pet peeves of mine have been and will continue to be the following:
The dangerous deployments of spike strips. For our profession's latest tragedy—occurring just last week.
The lack of ballistic gear for patrol officers.
On the subject of ballistic gear, I received an email recently from Stanley Cohen, a former Cincinnati police officer who is also a retired IUP Criminal Law Professor and an attorney. Stanley has made it his mission to get ballistic helmets for as many patrol officers as he can such as when he successfully lobbied earlier this year for the New Kensington (Pa.) Police Department to purchase several bullet resistant helmets with ballistic shields.
Several police officers have said to me that they believe the bad guys are aiming at the heads of police officers because they know they are wearing vests. I agree. These head shot killings seem to corroborate that belief. If it is true, then it can be expected that there will be more officers dying from head shots this year, who would otherwise have been saved had they had ballistic face shields to wear as first responders in high risk situations. Once officers begin to wear ballistic face shields, and the bad guys become aware of this fact, they may tend to lower their shots to the leg area of officers, which, while very serious and potentially life threatening, are not as likely to cause death as head shots.
Once the general public is made aware of this information, the general public will be more accepting of police officers wearing ballistic face shields, just as they became more accepting of police officers wearing firearms and bullet proof vests and Tasers."
Police Chiefs in Pennsylvania should contact their District Attorney to see if forfeited funds are available to buy ballistic face shields/helmets for police officer first responders to wear in high risk situations.
Police Chiefs in Pennsylvania (everywhere) should apply for grants from the United States Bureau of Justice Assistance to buy ballistic face shields/helmets for police officer first responders to wear in high risk situations.http://connect.lawofficer.com/profiles/blogs/all-police-patrol-officerhttp://www.policemag.com/Blog/Patrol-Tactics/story/2011/08/We-Need-Ballistic-Helmets-on-Patrol.aspx