Selection and Application Guide to Ballistic-Resistant Body Armor For Law Enforcement, Corrections and Public Safety: NIJ Selection and Application Guide-0101.06

• NCJ Number: 247281
• Date Published: December 2014
• Length: 104 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Standard; Guideline

Annotation

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), has developed this resource to provide guidance concerning the selection, procurement, use, care and maintenance, and other considerations related to ballistic-resistant body armor.

Abstract

Developed by a team of active-duty law enforcement and corrections officers, technical experts, and others with relevant knowledge and experience related to ballistic-resistant body armor, compliance testing, and conformity assessment, NIJ Guide-0101.06 incorporates new knowledge about ballistic-resistant armor. This guide has two principal purposes: 1) Inform law enforcement, corrections, and other public safety agencies in the development of sound policies and procedures concerning the life-cycle of body armor - from procurement to disposal. And, 2) provide officers a better understanding of the importance of wearing body armor, wearing it correctly, and caring for it properly. This guide is also intended to provide its readers a better understanding of body armor and how it works, explain NIJ Standard-0101.06 in nontechnical terms, and provide an overview of the voluntary equipment compliance testing program established by NIJ to ensure the effectiveness of body armor sold to law enforcement, corrections, and other public safety agencies. The recommendations concerning how to select and purchase body armor begins with Chapter 4 and subsequent chapters explain how to assess the level of protection needed, things to think about when selecting armor, and ways to keep it in proper working order. An extensive collection of appendixes is available for reference.