NYPD Gears Up to Protect Its Officers Following Dallas and Baton Rouge Assaults
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The nation’s largest police force plans to purchase 6,000 bulletproof vests and 20,000 military-style helmets.
Following deadly attacks on law enforcement officers in Texas and Louisiana, New York City’s police department is moving to purchase thousands of military-style helmets and heavy body armor vests meant to better protect officers from gunfire.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton described the department’s plans to acquire the equipment during a press conference on Monday. Bratton said the NYPD would purchase 6,000 of the vests and 20,000 helmets at a cost of about $7.5 million.
The department is also exploring options for outfitting police vehicles with door panels and window glass meant to block bullets. While the NYPD is committed to installing the door panels, its exact plans for the glass are not yet clear, according to Bratton.
Mayor de Blasio stressed that keeping officers safe was a top priority.
“We have to make sure we’re taking every measure available to protect our officers with the latest gear, the latest technology,” he said.
The equipment purchases, Bratton explained, will come on top of other investments the department has made during the last three years to enhance officer safety. “You name it, we are buying it,” the commissioner said. “There is not a police department in America that is spending as much money, as much thought and interest, on this issue of officer safety.”
The vests will be carried in patrol vehicles. Officers would don them on top of lighter bullet-resistant vests they currently wear.
Specialized NYPD units have previously been issued this sort of burly protective gear. But the new equipment will go to street-level officers, who respond to calls for service and are often the first to arrive on the scene of an incident.
New York’s police department is the nation’s largest police force with about 34,500 uniformed personnel. The department’s move to acquire the new equipment comes as law enforcement agencies throughout the nation are taking new measures to protect officers in the wake of recent attacks on police in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Dallas ambush occurred on July 7, following a peaceful demonstration over fatal shootings of black men by police in Minnesota and Louisiana. During the attack, a man with an assault rifle and a handgun killed five police officers, while wounding seven others, along with two civilians. Officials said he specifically set out to kill white officers.
On July 17, a gunman shot six officers in Baton Rouge, killing three of them. According to authorities, 29-year-old Gavin Long had two rifles and one handgun at the time of the attack.
Among those weapons were a IWI Tavor SAR 5.56-millimeter rifle, and a Stag Arms M4 variant 5.56-millimeter rifle, which was in a vehicle Long was driving. A 5.56 millimeter round is the same size as that used in military-style assault weapons such as M16 and M4 rifles.
Bratton said the vests the city would buy are capable of stopping rounds like those fired at officers in the Louisiana attack.
Law enforcement departments around the country came under scrutiny in 2014 for procuring military-style equipment. This happened after armored vehicles, tear gas and officers with assault rifles were deployed in response to protests over the death of a black 18-year-old, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer.
Central to questions about the heavy gear was the federal government’s so-called 1033 program, which involved the transfer of battlefield equipment to local law enforcement agencies. In the wake of the recent assaults on officers, the White House plans to reconsider a ban imposed last year on transfers of some military items to police, Reuters first reported last Thursday.
Bratton said Monday that the new helmets and body armor vests were not intended to be worn by officers on a routine basis, or during peaceful protests.
The helmets are similar to the kevlar headgear that is said to have saved the life of a police officer in Orlando, Florida last month. That officer was struck in the head by a bullet as police responded to a gunman who went on a shooting rampage at a nightclub, killing 49 people.
Rolling out the upgraded protective gear, Bratton said, is expected to take several months. An order for the armored vests was placed last week.
In addition to the Dallas and Baton Rouge attacks, Bratton noted that a video of NYPD officers getting shot at by a suspect while responding to a call earlier this month had influenced his decision to push for the new equipment.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who is a former NYPD officer, likened the procurement of the equipment to a decision in the 1990s to transition the city police department’s firearms to 9-millimeter handguns, from .38-caliber revolvers.
“It gave our officers the necessary firepower,” he said at Monday’s press conference. “Now we move to a new level.”
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for a Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Washington, D.C.
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