06-02-2006, 11:18 PM
Police Seek Answers After Slug Pierces Officer's Vest
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By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 2, 2006
TAMPA - The Tampa Police Department wants a federal laboratory to test a ballistic vest penetrated by a bullet last week, injuring Officer James Wilkinson.
"We want to find out what the failure was, if there was a failure," police armorer Vernon Schlechty said Thursday.
The police union and the vest's manufacturer applauded the move Thursday, even as a Colorado official who has independently tested similar vests questioned their stopping power.
Wilkinson, 25, is recuperating at home after minor surgery to remove the bullet, which slid below his badge, stabbed through a notebook in his breast pocket and punctured the vest's armored material, officials said. It traveled on an angle, missing the vest's trauma plate and erupting a seam, Schlechty said.
Wilkinson had stopped Tomas Montesdeoca, 51, at 1:30 a.m. May 26 for driving with a suspended license when Montesdeoca fired at him, police said. Three other officers fatally shot Montesdeoca at a Hillsborough Avenue gas station a short time later when he waved a gun at them, police said.
The Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice tests all ballistic material before vests are manufactured. The model of Wilkinson's vest - a Second Chance Monarch 329 II, also known as a Type II SC329 - was rated as capable of stopping a 9 mm or .357-caliber Magnum slug.
Tampa police are not required to wear body armor. The officers who do wear it use one of three brands: Second Chance, Protech and American Body Armor, Schlechty said. He did not have the number of officers using Second Chance vests on Thursday.
The vests are replaced every five years. Wilkinson's was just over one year old when he was shot, Schlechty said.
Shipping The Vest Requires Care
"We're going to get to the bottom of this," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. The department wants to feel secure that what officers use is performing adequately, she said.
Schlechty said he is developing a method to send the vest to an NIJ-certified laboratory, possibly in Gaithersburg, Md., that will preserve evidence such as the bullet's path.
The West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union representing Tampa police, said it was glad a federal laboratory is being recruited to provide answers.
"We want to know if we're safe," President Kevin Durkin said. "The potential that this represents - not just for Officer Wilkinson but for anyone wearing [a vest] - is of course cause for great concern."
Second Chance Body Armor Inc. has not examined the vest but thinks it saved Wilkinson's life, said Ron Dornsife, a company spokesman.
A bullet will puncture several layers of a vest's ballistic material as the vest works to dissipate the impact, he said.
If the police department wants an independent test of the vest, "we'd welcome that," Dornsife said.
The vest is made of Twaron, a material "pretty much on a par" with Kevlar, Dornsife said. The company began using Twaron after the patent on Kevlar expired a few years ago.
Public records show Second Chance filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004 after being sued over vests made of Zylon, a material that NIJ tests found degrades over time. The wounding of a Forest Hills, Pa., officer wearing a Zylon vest triggered the actions, according to the NIJ, and was the first time an NIJ-compliant model failed to perform to specifications.
New Material Employed
Dornsife said the company has not had similar issues with Twaron vests.
However, records posted online by the Colorado Multi-Jurisdictional Vest Advisory Committee - a group of law enforcement officers, procurement officials and vest manufacturers that independently tests ballistic vests - have raised questions about the vests' stopping power.
These records show the Monarch 329 IIA and the Monarch Summit, which Tampa does not use, failed tests the committee commissioned in 2004 and 2005.
Colorado is the only state that independently tests vests after their manufacture, said Michael Wallace, a former procurement officer for Colorado who is on an NIJ committee working to revise the testing standards.
"There's a big difference between the [what is used in] certification tests and the vests given to officers to wear," said Wallace, who was on the Colorado vest testing committee.
Currently, manufacturers submit a sample of ballistic material to NIJ testers that can be as large as 17 inches high by 23 inches wide for a man's vest, NIJ records show. The NIJ did not specify the size of these sample panels prior to March 2005.
The agency does not test used vests. Testers shoot at the wet and dry material against a clay model from a fixed distance, five meters for a Type II vest such as Wilkinson's.
Wallace said the bigger panel allows for more surface area to distribute the bullet's energy. He thinks vests should be tested as Colorado does - right out of the box - and after they've been used to see how they hold up over time.
Schlechty said the suggestion is valid. After all, he said, officers are retested on their levels of fitness and marksmanship.
"You don't know that [the vests] are still being made to the same specifications as the first one," Schlechty said.
Contact Valerie Kalfrin at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.
Skip directly to the full story.
By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jun 2, 2006
TAMPA - The Tampa Police Department wants a federal laboratory to test a ballistic vest penetrated by a bullet last week, injuring Officer James Wilkinson.
"We want to find out what the failure was, if there was a failure," police armorer Vernon Schlechty said Thursday.
The police union and the vest's manufacturer applauded the move Thursday, even as a Colorado official who has independently tested similar vests questioned their stopping power.
Wilkinson, 25, is recuperating at home after minor surgery to remove the bullet, which slid below his badge, stabbed through a notebook in his breast pocket and punctured the vest's armored material, officials said. It traveled on an angle, missing the vest's trauma plate and erupting a seam, Schlechty said.
Wilkinson had stopped Tomas Montesdeoca, 51, at 1:30 a.m. May 26 for driving with a suspended license when Montesdeoca fired at him, police said. Three other officers fatally shot Montesdeoca at a Hillsborough Avenue gas station a short time later when he waved a gun at them, police said.
The Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice tests all ballistic material before vests are manufactured. The model of Wilkinson's vest - a Second Chance Monarch 329 II, also known as a Type II SC329 - was rated as capable of stopping a 9 mm or .357-caliber Magnum slug.
Tampa police are not required to wear body armor. The officers who do wear it use one of three brands: Second Chance, Protech and American Body Armor, Schlechty said. He did not have the number of officers using Second Chance vests on Thursday.
The vests are replaced every five years. Wilkinson's was just over one year old when he was shot, Schlechty said.
Shipping The Vest Requires Care
"We're going to get to the bottom of this," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. The department wants to feel secure that what officers use is performing adequately, she said.
Schlechty said he is developing a method to send the vest to an NIJ-certified laboratory, possibly in Gaithersburg, Md., that will preserve evidence such as the bullet's path.
The West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union representing Tampa police, said it was glad a federal laboratory is being recruited to provide answers.
"We want to know if we're safe," President Kevin Durkin said. "The potential that this represents - not just for Officer Wilkinson but for anyone wearing [a vest] - is of course cause for great concern."
Second Chance Body Armor Inc. has not examined the vest but thinks it saved Wilkinson's life, said Ron Dornsife, a company spokesman.
A bullet will puncture several layers of a vest's ballistic material as the vest works to dissipate the impact, he said.
If the police department wants an independent test of the vest, "we'd welcome that," Dornsife said.
The vest is made of Twaron, a material "pretty much on a par" with Kevlar, Dornsife said. The company began using Twaron after the patent on Kevlar expired a few years ago.
Public records show Second Chance filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004 after being sued over vests made of Zylon, a material that NIJ tests found degrades over time. The wounding of a Forest Hills, Pa., officer wearing a Zylon vest triggered the actions, according to the NIJ, and was the first time an NIJ-compliant model failed to perform to specifications.
New Material Employed
Dornsife said the company has not had similar issues with Twaron vests.
However, records posted online by the Colorado Multi-Jurisdictional Vest Advisory Committee - a group of law enforcement officers, procurement officials and vest manufacturers that independently tests ballistic vests - have raised questions about the vests' stopping power.
These records show the Monarch 329 IIA and the Monarch Summit, which Tampa does not use, failed tests the committee commissioned in 2004 and 2005.
Colorado is the only state that independently tests vests after their manufacture, said Michael Wallace, a former procurement officer for Colorado who is on an NIJ committee working to revise the testing standards.
"There's a big difference between the [what is used in] certification tests and the vests given to officers to wear," said Wallace, who was on the Colorado vest testing committee.
Currently, manufacturers submit a sample of ballistic material to NIJ testers that can be as large as 17 inches high by 23 inches wide for a man's vest, NIJ records show. The NIJ did not specify the size of these sample panels prior to March 2005.
The agency does not test used vests. Testers shoot at the wet and dry material against a clay model from a fixed distance, five meters for a Type II vest such as Wilkinson's.
Wallace said the bigger panel allows for more surface area to distribute the bullet's energy. He thinks vests should be tested as Colorado does - right out of the box - and after they've been used to see how they hold up over time.
Schlechty said the suggestion is valid. After all, he said, officers are retested on their levels of fitness and marksmanship.
"You don't know that [the vests] are still being made to the same specifications as the first one," Schlechty said.
Contact Valerie Kalfrin at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.