The Latest Research on Body Armor

Good News About Body Armor, But More Education Is Needed

According to a recently released survey of 1,080 officers: 

• More than 90 percent of agencies require officers to wear their body armor today; the number has grown from 59 percent in 2009. Most officers obey: 88 percent reported they wear their armor all the time when they are on duty.
• Officers wear their armor because they know it protects them, not because they are required to do so or because they have first-hand experience—73 percent said they had never been shot at or involved in situations in which their body armor protected them from possible injuries, and fewer than 1 percent reported they had been disciplined for not wearing it.
• A majority of officers know how to maintain their armor but significant numbers do not know or understand certain aspects of recommended procedures and do not adhere to recommended practices even when they do understand them. For example, most manufacturers recommend storing body armor flat. But the survey found that as many as half the officers in the survey use a standard clothes hanger.

The NIJ-funded research was conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum. 

Read "A Practitioner's Guide To the 2011 National Body Armor Survey of Law Enforcement Officers" 13 pages. 

Read the full report, "Body Armor Use, Care, and Performance in Real World Conditions: Findings from a National Survey" 280 pages.