Module 2 - Law Enforcement Equipment and Police Canines

A bullet-resistant vest covers the user’s mid-to-upper torso region and provides protection from most common low-velocity and medium-velocity handgun bullets. When a handgun bullet strikes the front or “face” of a bullet-resistant vest, the bullet is caught in a criss-cross ‘network’ of very strong synthetic fibre, the first generation of which was developed under the trade name Kevlar. These fibres absorb and disperse the kinetic energy of a bullet, which causes the bullet to deform or ‘mushroom’ as it impacts the multiples layers of resistant material.

Some kinetic energy of the bullet is absorbed by each of the many layers of bullet-resistant material in the vest until the bullet has expended all its kinetic energy and comes to rest. Most of the surface area of soft body armour is involved in absorbing the impact of a bullet. Consequently, absorption occurs as an even distribution of energy throughout the “strike face”. This helps to reduce blunt force trauma to the user’s internal organs, which can result if sufficient kinetic energy is transferred into the soft body armour. The use of trauma plates can further reduce the potential for blunt force trauma.