Module 2 - Law Enforcement Equipment and Police Canines
Lesson 1 - Bullet-resistant Vests and Conducted Energy Devices
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Bullet-resistant vests have saved the lives of more than 2000 police officers since the 1970’s. - Image Source: Sergeant A. Kowalyk, Edmonton Police Service |
Body Armour
Bullet-resistant vests are a type of body armour. Body armour is of two main categories: hard body armour and soft body armour.
Medieval knights wore hard body armour.
Medieval knights wore hard body armour made of heavy metal chain and steel plates. These suits of armour helped to deflect blows from weapons such as swords, lances, and axes. Current forms of hard body armour include heavy steel or ceramic plates set within bullet-resistant vests. These rigid “trauma plates” deflect edged weapons and many types of bullets that normally pierce soft body armour. Such forms of hard body armour help to absorb and dissipate tremendous amounts of kinetic energy delivered by the impact of a high-power rifle bullet or the focused energy of the tip of a knife. In general, hard body armour offers more protection than soft body armour; however, it is impractical for daily use by police officers because it is heavy and inflexible, restricting movement.
Hard body armour vest used by military personal.
- Image Source: Wikipedia.com
Bullet-resistant vests, also referred to as soft body armour, are constructed of many layers of bullet-resistant fabric of specialized fibres. Soft body armour absorbs the impact of a bullet, diffusing the force of the impact and thereby preventing penetration. It does not cause bullets to ricochet. Modern bullet-resistant vests are durable, lightweight, and flexible, making them ideal for police officers on the street.
The oldest soft body armour was made from 18 to 30 layers of silk and protected users from arrows and spears. A bullet-resistant vest made of silk fabric in the United States in the late 1800s could stop relatively slow-moving bullets fired from black powder handguns. These vests were extremely costly (US $15 000) because silk was very expensive.
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