Photo: Pueblo (CO) PD/Facebook
The Pueblo (CO) Police Department is getting $132,000 worth of supplemental body armor designed to withstand high-powered rifle fire thanks to a generous gift from a national foundation, reports the Pueblo Chieftain.
The Barber Family Foundation recently donated 200 vests, which also come with trauma kits, to the police department. "That will basically be a vest for each officer that's in a position that they need to wear one of these," said Sgt. James Olonia of the police department.
Each vest will come equipped with a trauma kit that contains a tourniquet, quick clot, bandages, scissors, and other basic medical necessities for officers.
"The main idea behind this type of supplemental body armor is that the body armor we wear now isn't rated for those high-caliber rifle rounds. And so, any rifle call we go to and those type of things, the officers' vests are basically ineffective. The rifle rounds would penetrate those," Olonia, who was present at the council meeting when the resolution to accept the donation of the equipment was approved, said. "The ones we're going to get are ceramic and offer the officers an incredible amount of safety and protection when they go to those type of calls. Pueblo's not any different than the rest of the nation, where people are armed more and more with high-powered rifles and assault rifles and all those type of things. So we certainly want our officers to be protected at that level."
Olonia said that without the donation from the Barber Family Foundation, the vests wouldn't have been a reality for the police department.
