California

Dallas Police Looking Outside of the City for Protection

Hundreds of Dallas police officers have ordered heavy-duty armored vests from a California non-profit group that provides them free of charge.

Detective Angela Arredondo wears a bracelet on her wrist with the date "7/7/16" as a daily reminder of the tragic events of July 7.

A heavy-duty armor vest she received shortly after four Dallas police officers and a DART police officer were killed is a reminder that safety is paramount.

"I definitely feel like if they had had heavy vests, some of their injuries would have been stopped," Arredondo said. "It's better safe than sorry now, going forward, and it couldn't hurt to have a little extra layer of protection – or a big layer of protection – between us and a rifle."

The vests are meant to be worn above an officer's uniform and in addition to the department-issued vest worn underneath. It comes with a level-3 ballistic plate, which is strong enough to stop a round fired by a rifle.

Arredondo said the vest is a heavier load to carry, but that extra weight could save an officer's life.

"This plate is much bigger. It covers a lot more body mass than our typical vest that we wear," she said.

More than 4000 law enforcement agents across the country have ordered a vest. 600 of those requests have come from Dallas. Criminologist Dr. Kent Kerley said its understandble that Dallas officers would want to protect themselves more in light of the July 7 ambush, even if the threat for a similar attack are relatively low.

He said departments must balance protection with perception.

"Having most of your officers walking around in what appears to be SWAT uniforms, military style uniforms could be very off-ptting to the public," Kerley said. "How can you be more secure and have all the right equipment without making people think they're living in a police state? That's the balance that police have to try to achieve."

For more information about E614, the organization that provides the vests to officers, visit: http://www.e614.org.

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