Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
function. Many police departments and agencies rely completely on the
NIJ standards and procure vests based on the NIJ rating alone. The ques-
tion is: Are these standards sufficient to allow agencies or individuals like
you to select the product that will provide the best level of protection? The
answer is no.
The basis for our conclusion may be found in the testing protocols
established by the NIJ itself. This procedure, as well as other important
information, may be found in a topic published by the NIJ entitled
Selec-
tion and Application Guide to Police Body Armor.
1
This guide provides a good
overall look at body armor in general. However, it also makes many erro-
neous conclusions and reveals that the NIJ's own testing standards are
inadequate.
The NIJ claims that “No documented fatal injury has ever resulted
from a round of ammunition penetrating body armor that NIJ had
approved as protection against that level of threat.”
2
However, this state-
ment is rendered almost meaningless once it is analyzed more deeply. All
it means is that no vest ever failed to meet the standards the NIJ has
arbitrarily set. There are many cases of vest penetration. In fact, the Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was among the first law enforcement
agencies to reject the NIJ's rating system after an agent wearing a vest was
murdered. On May 29, 1995, FBI Special Agent William Christian was
ambushed and shot to death while attempting to apprehend the killer of
a corporal in the Prince George's County Police Department. He was shot
at point-blank range and was struck numerous times, both in the area of
his vest and around it. Although the wounds inflicted on Agent Christian
in nonprotected areas were fatal, the investigation revealed that one of the
rounds that struck his vest had penetrated his torso. This raised alarm
bells, and the FBI initially concluded that the vests were defective. Not so,
said both the NIJ and the manufacturer. The round that penetrated Chris-
tian's vest was very close to another round that had also struck the vest.
The vest was neither designed nor required to provide protection against multiple
impacts striking the armor in close proximity.
What, then, are vests expected
to do? An examination of NIJ standards and test practices will explain.
Prior to testing, vests are secured to clay blocks and are shot with the
indicated test rounds. The NIJ claims that it chose clay as a backing mate-
rial for a variety of reasons, but the main one seems to have been that clay
deforms when it is hit, creating a depression allowing blunt trauma to be
easily measured. The ballistic panel is held flat against the clay and does
not replicate the curvature it exhibits while worn by a human being. The
