PAX Centurion - May / June 2013

Page 20 • PAX CENTURION • May/June 2013 617-989-BPPA (2772) New Equipment Update By Patrick M. Rose, BPPA Secretary J une 1 st , while some officers of the BPD might have been lucky enough to be on one of those few days off, you know where one could possibly be enjoying a beautiful, sunny, warm summer like day in the yard or at the beach, approximately two dozen of us spent the day at the range on moon island. Why would we take such valuable time off and spend it at the range?Are we out of our collective minds? Simply nuts or some kind of fanatical idiots so much on the ‘cool aid’ that we would rather be at the range than spend a beautiful day off with our family or friends? Quite frankly, no, the fact of the matter is that this group, this committee of men and woman representing all three unions and ranks along with two members of the Command Staff are dedicated to keeping our word to you and our promise to select the best possible product and equipment for you, the Boston Police Officer. I’m speaking of the ‘Bullet Resistant Vest Committee’ that I have alluded to in previous articles including this edition’s ‘Secretary Spread’. I can assure you that, as promised, this is a working committee that will stick to the agenda, the schedule and calendar regardless. We will not allow politics to interfere; we will not allow complacency or shoddy work. Under the direction of Superintendents Ken Fong and Will Gross and the superb assistance of range personnel Sgt. Jason Gilmore, Officer John Newman and Officer Mike Spence, the committee completed yet another very important step in selecting the new body armor for the department. Arriving at 7:00 in the morning, the committee set up the range to shoot test all vests that will be considered, prior to wear testing this summer. Today I witnessed the most professionally orchestrated and documented test in my career. Developed and administered by Sgt. Det. Dan Humphreys, (one of the committee members), this test will stand up to anyone’s questions concerning the viability of any vest that we allow to go into the wear test phase. Dan developed and administered a plan that documented every facet of the testing procedure to include independent verification by two persons at every step, not only in writing but utilizing still photographs and moving film. If we didn’t know any better, you would have thought we were in the middle of the FBI academy conducting a NIJ Federal Test. The NIJ standard test was not only duplicated, but the vests in question were put through a much more rigorous shoot test surpassing all test standards established by the Fed. Every vest being considered by us, both Level II and Level IIIA, (IIIA being our current standard issue), were subjected to the following live fire: each vest was fired on multiple times utilizing: a 124 grain full metal jacket 9mm; a 180 grain full metal jacket .40 cal; a 230 grain .45 cal swat round; a .45 cal Winchester bond round; a State Police issue 230 grain .45 cal round; a 124 grain full metal jacket .357 sig round; a 240 grain .44 cal magnum round and our own issue 180 grain .40 cal spear dot hollow point round. Please realize the kind of fire power I’m talking about here. Not only did the tested vests meet the Feds own NIJ standard, they surpassed them by stopping all rounds fired. Two of the Level II brands actually stopped the .44 magnum rounds with back face deformation within NIJ standards for a Level IIIA, amazing results! Considering that NIJ only requires the following standard tests: New Level II armor is tested to a 9mm round nose (RN) full metal jacket (FMJ) weighing 124 grains (gr.) traveling at a velocity of 1305 feet per second (fps), as well as a .357 Magnum jacketed soft point (JSP) weighing 158 gr. traveling at a velocity of 1430 fps. New Level IIIA armor is tested to a .357 Sig. flat nose (FN) FMJ weighing 125 gr. traveling at a velocity of 1470 fps, as well as a .44 Magnum semi-jacketed hollow point (SJHP) weighing 240 gr. traveling at a velocity of 1430 fps. I don’t want to waste your time with all of the technical data; suffice it to say that the test that Sgt. Det. Dan Humphreys developed made the fed test look like child’s play. The main reason for this article is to keep you up to date and reassure you that any vest that makes it to end game, has been thoroughly tested beyond federal guidelines and standards and you can be comfortable in the fact that we took everything to the extreme. At this point in the testing process, I am comfortable enough to state that I would wear one of these Level II’s tomorrow and be confident in its bullet stopping ability. One of the goals of this committee is to identify options for the end user, being you. One option will be that you decide which vest is best for you, a Level II or Level IIIA, you make the decision not some administrator, you will also be given options to select the carrier that you feel comfortable in. I am thrilled that the management of the department, (represented by Superintendents Fong and Gross), can actually accomplish something by working with the representatives of each and every one of our Unions, that will be of enormous benefit to our combined members! We hope to carry this cooperative effort forward by identifying and fielding the needed equipment necessary to protect ourselves. More updates to come, please enjoy your summer, stay cool and be careful, back each other up! Get home to your family safe and sound!