In today’s world, being a police officer or other law enforcement official can be a dangerous job, thus necessitating body armor for police. In fact, in the last decade alone, there were around 60,000 assaults on law enforcement officials, including police, every single year. In 2016 alone, nearly 70 police officers were killed, and those were considered criminal. For 62 of those officers, they were assaulted by a firearm, typically a gun. Because of these statistics and high rates of violence against police officers, body armor for police has become something of a necessity in many areas.
Body armor for police, in order to be effective, must include a few key components. For instance, bulletproof vests for police officers are a necessity, as in the last ten years, around one third of all deaths of police officers came to be because of a gunshot wound. Aside from motor vehicle accidents, there is no leading cause of death of police officers that is higher. And statistics have found that ballistic body armor for police officers has a considerable positive impact, saving the lives of around 3,000 law enforcement officials in recent decades. In fact, gunshot wounds become 3.4 times less survivable for those officers that do not wear tactical body armor. In fact, 20% of police officers who died from a gunshot wound while wearing body armor for police only did because the ammunition used in the gun was more powerful and stronger than the body armor itself.
Fortunately, the implementation of body armor for police officers has become more and more common place. In fact, in 2013 more than 70% of all law enforcement agencies required that their police officers wear some level of body armor at all times while they were on duty. And in New York, nearly 90 police officers have had their lives saved because they were wearing body armor for police officers. Though violence against police officers happens at an alarmingly high rate, there are steps that police officers and law enforcement officials can take to keep themselves safe. For many police officers, body armor and other types of tactical gear might be the only thing that sends them home safe to their families, especially in cases of assault with a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, police deaths do still occur, but they are considerably lessened when the proper precautions are taken.
