After officer’s slaying, should Metro mandate stronger bulletproof vests?

When Metropolitan Police Department officer Truong Thai was shot on Oct. 13, a bullet from an AK-47 pistol pierced his bulletproof vest, killing him, Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh said in a briefing.

Now, Las Vegas police say that anything that might prevent similar deaths in the future — including updating the department’s body armor policy — is on the table.

“The outcome of the investigation could result in that,” Metro officer Misael Parra said. “I’m not going to say that it’s going to.”

Parra said Metro is undergoing a routine review of policies and tactics that led to the shooting.

A vest exists that could have saved Thai’s life, but it’s up to officers to choose whether they will endure the extra weight of wearing one.

While all Metro officers are encouraged to wear ballistic vests, only the officers hired after July 1, 2008, are required to wear them. And the department’s policy stated that officers must wear, at a minimum, the kind of vest that would stop handgun rounds, or what is classified under federal standards as a Type IIA vest.

Thai, who was hired in 1999, was wearing a vest, but Parra would not provide specifics on Thai’s body armor, saying it’s part of the investigation into his shooting death.

The type IIA vest is one of five progressive levels of protection, as described by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice. Those are IIA, II, IIIA, III and IV.

Type IIA protects against rounds from handguns, like 9 mm and .40 caliber. Type IV, on the other hand, is hard armor or plate inserts that protect against armor piercing rounds from rifles. Other types of armor don’t fall under the classified categories.

Parra said the biggest threat officers face is usually a smaller-caliber weapon. A Type IIA vest protects against smaller caliber rounds, while a Type II would add protection against higher-powered handgun ammunition.

Choosing the right weight

Las Vegas Police Protective Association President Steve Grammas said officers receive an annual allotment of $2,100. The money goes toward each officer choosing his own vest, handgun and flashlight as well as getting their uniforms dry-cleaned.

Safe Life Defense owner Nick Groat said an officer comes into the store on South Valley View Boulevard daily to purchase a vest. The Las Vegas-based manufacturer sells IIIA, and a company-specific vest called FRAS, or flexible rifle armor system, that protects against rifle rounds. FRAS vests are one step below Type IV.

“The IIA really doesn’t cover a lot of the threats that an officer may come across nowadays,” Groat said.

FRAS vests are heavier, more than double the weight of a II or IIIA vest, and more expensive. FRAS vests protect the entire torso from rifles with a flexible material, Groat said.

“The really, most important thing is for an officer to have the armor for their daily use,” Groat said. “If the armor isn’t something practical, they’re not going to wear it.”

Safe Life Defense vests Groat suggests for patrol officers, the Type IIIA, start at $449. A FRAS vest starts at $1,600 on the company’s website.

“With rifles, what makes them much more difficult to stop is velocity,” Groat said. “The speed at which the round is moving, that makes it much more difficult to stop and more devastating when it does hit you.”

Safe Life has a ballistics range in their new Henderson warehouse that measures the impact an officer’s body would face if shot with different rounds while wearing different vests. Groat demonstrated that a FRAS vest, when shot with a 5.56 mm bullet, would send minor impacts through the officer’s body.

That same bullet on a lighter-weight vest might rip through it, according to the National Institute of Justice standards.

In March 2019, Metro officer Joaquin Escobar, 29, was saved by his Safe Life Defense vest when Michael Cohen opened fire in the valet area of the Bellagio. Escobar was struck several times by a .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun. Metro said the officer was not injured.

“When an officer is saved by a bulletproof vest, it always makes everything we do worth it,” Groat said.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com or 561-324-6421. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.