EXTERNAL VEST CARRIERS the Advantages of the Progressive Uniform
INTRODUCTION Throughout the country traditional Police uniforms have included a heavy duty belt that contains the equipment Officers need to perform out their daily tasks. This has contributed to both long and short term injuries over the course of many Officer’s careers and into retirement. Within the last ten years many departments have transitioned to the use of external armor carriers to help prevent this issue. These “load bearing vests” represent an evolution in law enforcement equipment. The vests have become the ideal tool for helping to prevent work related injuries associated with the hip, back, and spine. They also offer increased mobility, more efficient gear placement, and increased capacity for Officers when performing their duties. Unlike duty-belts, where space for gear is limited by an Officer’s waist size, the vest is a one-size fits all solution.
EXTERNAL VEST CARRIER Each day officers put on their duty belt which can weigh up to 30 plus pounds when its fully loaded. This can equal much as one quarter of the weight of some female officers. The hips and lower back is not a natural place for the body to endure that much weight. The number one injury reported by police officers nation-wide is a LOWER BACK INJURY . This is almost always caused by two common issues: One is use of a duty belt to hold all of their needed items in the field. Next, is caused by sitting in a police car or station for up to 12 hours at a time with items such as handcuffs or pepper spray positioned on your back while seated. Some officers may not have any alternative places to store these items due to a lack of space on their belt.
EXAMINING THE DUTY BELT
LOWER BACK INJURY STEWART L. SHANFIELD, M.D. former Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at St. Jude’s Hospital in Fullerton, CA, has studied the negative effects of wearing heavy duty belts by officers. In addition to his mentioned positions he was also selected as the Orthopedic Physician of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010. Dr. Shanfield wrote: “The use of a load-bearing vest that transfers some of the items off the service belt to the vest carrier while distributing some of the weight to the officer’s shoulders and not solely concentrating the weight on the lower levels of the spine will help prevent this work related cumulative trauma in the lumbar spine for public safety officers.” “Lower back injuries are a leading cause of both short-term and permanent disability in law enforcement. Needless to say, the loss of skilled personnel coupled with the impact of adverse quality of life issues is distressing. The cost to taxpayers in the form of workers compensation costs, lost work hours, mandated light-duty assignments and long-term disability costs are staggering. The introduction of the daily use of load-bearing vests would serve to dramatically decrease taxpayer costs associated with back injuries.”
LOW BACK AND SCIATIC NERVE DAMAGE
BENEFITS • Pain reduction, Injury prevention, gear access and capacity, increased mobility and efficiency. • Fully loaded duty belts can weight as much as 30 pounds. External carriers can reduce the weight off the belt by as much as 75% , shifting it to the upper body which allows an Officer’s core muscles and shoulders to disperse and bare the load. • External carriers can have pouches made for everything a duty belt can carry, including: magazines, pepper spray, handcuffs, pens, flashlights, radios and tasers. This affords officers better access to their tools and removes the need to place items on their backside or to overload the front of a belt. • Everybody has a nerve that runs up over the hip bone, over the front, that controls the muscles in your upper leg in the front and a nerve down the back -- the sciatic nerve. The typical duty belt winds up supporting itself on exactly those four points on your waist: the two points on your hip bone and on your lower back.
DISPERSING THE LOAD
SPECIALTY APPLICATIONS/BENEFITS • MCU/TAC Detectives: All gear is centralized and readily available for call-outs, warrant services, and/or exigent situations. • Traffic: Lifting legs and hips with a fully loaded duty belt causes added physical stress and discomfort • Bicycle Patrol / CPT: Posture and physical efficiency improvements. A flexible platform that can be used for plain clothes operations. • K9: Required to carry extra gear, do a lot more running/traversing, and need to have first aid for the K9 on-hand.
REGIONAL USE OF LBV’S Valley Agencies: Local Agencies: -Renton PD -Seattle PD -Mill Creek PD -Federal Way PD -KCSO -Lakewood PD -Des Moines PD -Kirkland PD -Portland PD -Kent PD (bike patrol) -Redmond PD -Vancouver PD -Bellevue PD -Snohomish County -Lynwood PD
NATIONAL USE OF LBV’S Los Angeles Police Department Faribault, MN Police Department East Bay Regional Parks Police Department Bradenton Beach, FL Police Department Chicago Police Department Manhattan Beach Police Department Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Oceanside Police Department The California Department of Pennsylvania Sheriff's Department Corrections Las Vegas Police Department Torrington, WY Police Department Kingsville, TX Police Department San Diego County Sheriff's Department Nevada Highway Patrol DPS California Department of Motor Vehicles The Hawthorne Police Department Arizona Highway Patrol DPS The Pasadena Police Department The Santa Monica Police Department U.S. Marshals Service The Redondo Beach Police Department The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department U.S. Forest Service The Chico Police Department Orange County Sheriff's Department Kentucky State Police Troopers The Stockton Police Department The Kern County Sheriff's Department Mesa, AZ Police Department The Concord Police Department Champaign, IL Police Department
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