Nearly all American law enforcement agencies provide body armor for officers, but only six in 10 require them to wear it some of the time, according to the Police Executive Research Forum. The data is based on a survey of 782 agencies by PERF and the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. The survey found that 99 percent of agencies provide the armor. Of the 59 percent that require it to be wore at times, only half of the agencies had a written policy about its use.
Among other findings: Only three in 10 agencies provide supplementary “trauma plates” that protect the torso; nine in 10 have no system of inspection to ensure the armor is in proper condition, and nearly eight in 10 have not automated system to replace worn body armor. (The weblink is connected to PERF’s pdf summary of the report.)