Bullet-proof underwear

It is mandatory now. It wasn't 20 years ago. When you see a local uniformed sheriff's deputy, highway patrolman, or city policeman these days, you can bet your bottom dollar he…or she, is wearing a Kevlar vest.

The topic of "bullet-resistant" vests on lawmen comes up every so often, especially when a vest saves an officer. There have been several of those shootings lately over in Idaho and Washington. The last case I recall in western Montana involved a Missoula policeman shot in the chest by a crazy who was creating a disturbance. In that instance the officer's vest saved his life, but the slug fired through the windshield of his patrol car, hit only an inch from the top edge of the Kevlar. The important fact is that an officer's life was saved. Adding impetus was a shooting in Missoula a couple of years earlier where the lawman did not have that protection and was killed.

In discussions of the "bullet-proof" vests, we older news people recall the incident years ago at Eureka where a Montana highway patrolman was shot in the chest and killed while he was wearing one. The weapon used against that officer was a .30-30 hunting rifle which has a much higher punch than the handguns carried by the average homicidal criminal.

In my files is a well-done story on this subject written by Gary Langer in the late 1980s. The piece was motivated by the killing of a veteran policeman in Detroit, Michigan, who was investigating an ongoing burglary without wearing a vest. Langer said police unions strongly support use of the vests but they have fought making such use mandatory. An estimate by the Detroit police department was that at least 40 percent of the officers didn't wear them even though about 100 officers there had been shot since 1980, with 14 of them being saved by having on the "recommended protective garment."

To give the Detroit situation relativity to our local situation, think of this. An FBI report at the time showed Detroit continued to be the nations number one big city for murder, with 59 homicides for every 100,000 residents, i.e., 650 killings per year. To be on a relative par with that kind of action, Flathead County would have to have roughly 36 murders per year, around three per month. Even though we have too many violent crimes here, we just aren't in the same league as the big cities. Though Detroit has been a U.S. leader for fatal violence, nearby Flint is often number one in rape and assault, and most of the other large cities of America aren't far behind.

With that background in 1987, I interviewed top law enforcement leaders and cops on the beat. Came to the conclusion most officers here did not wear the vests as a regular thing for several reasons. They were of the opinion the newer models of Kevlar fabric were less bulky than those of the past, but they were still bulky enough to give away officers doing undercover work. They were quite a lot hotter than a pair of wool long johns, just plain inconvenient, as well as somewhat restrictive of muscular movement. Those officers of 18 years ago also noted a psychological implication involved when you put on such a vest everyday which eventually leads to stress for some, "Is this the day I will get shot?" For some officers the answer was a fatalistic one, "I'm going to be as careful as I can and still do my duty, but if my number is up, it's up."

I've heard of officers who put on their bullet proof underwear each shift for so long they began feeling insecure and vulnerable without it, even when they went to church or were doing other off duty things.

The cops still tell me the 2006 Kevlar vests are better than 20 years ago, that is, lighter and more flexible; however one veteran officer said the last ones they got were more uncomfortable (bigger than necessary) because a law suit had made the manufacturer uneasy. He also told me they have to get new ones every five years because the materials tend to break down and weaken from wear.

If I were a cop in the Flathead, I'd probably not wear the vest all the time but I'd sure have on when I answered a potentially dangerous call. If I were a cop in Detroit, Michigan, I'd wear that vest. In fact…if I even lived in Detroit…I'd sleep in the darn thing.