Body Armour is protecting gear resembling ballistic armour, armoured vests, physique armour, ballistic helmets, demining armour, IED suits, ceramic, polythene and metal armour plates, face shields and anti-riot armour for the military and police across the world. You can hear as much in Military News. Today, modern forms of body armor are called bulletproof or bullet-resistant clothing. Modern protective vests have been created to minimize the injury from projectiles from handguns, shotguns and rifles. With that, it is commonly worn by police forces, military and private security and civilians. The legality of the issuance of body armors such as bulletproof vests is dictated the jurisdiction of the state law and other government law-enforcement agencies. With the recent rise of urban conflicts, protective bulletproof clothing has offered a wearable and affordable kind of confidence and security.
In a world, dominated by a growing lack of respect, appropriate solutions are required. A lack of inadequate personal safety measures can put a lone worker or frontline operative at unnecessary risk, and cause unacceptable injury or harm. Body armour and stab vests have therefore regrettably become a necessity within a number of domestic frontline professions. These protective products are used by the police, military and private safety companies in over 35 international locations including the South African Military, South African Navy, Irish Army, Indonesian Military, Armed Forces of Malta, Chilean Armed Forces, Dutch Special Forces, Thailand Navy and US Military; and multiple police forces in the UK and US in addition to the South African Police Providers, Turkish National Police, Saudi Arabia Police, Oman Police, German Police, Belgian Police and Bermuda Police.
Military physique armour is offered in a large number of configurations: ballistic, stab resistant, twin goal fragmentation resistant and flotation. They're made from a variety of ballistic supplies, including: woven and unidirectional (shield) aramid and high performance polyethylene. You'll find similar articles on Avionics across the internet. The outcome is of great relevance to the question: 'Body Armour - Why?' The main risks areas highlighted by the HSL are as follows:
- Visiting people in their home or office to enforce legal guidelines, police the system or having to give bad news.
- Certain geographical areas or trouble spots are high risk, such as poor or run down council estates.
- Dealing with certain high risk individuals, such as potentially violent or aggressive members of the public, drug users or dealers, or mentally ill individuals.
- Dealing with frustrated and disappointed customers (e.g. customers unhappy with the service your organisation has provided)
- Working late at night.
- Evicting people from their home.
- Visiting clients in unfamiliar industrial and domestic premises.
- Visiting unoccupied buildings
Several more reasons can be highlighted, making a decision not to issue potentially life saving body armour or stab vests even more controversial. Corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide laws as well as health & safety regulations have been rewritten in countries around the world, in order to protect those who serve and risk their lives for others. The cost of facing potential legal action after a fatal or non-fatal incident and the cost of injured employees taking time off would outweigh the one-off cost of body armour. Assaults on personnel who are not wearing protective clothing also create bad publicity for the Authority concerned, not to mention the welfare of the person involved and operational problems resulting from the injured staff being incapable to work. In 2003 the UK's Health and Safety Laboratory developed 18 case studies and approached over 400 organisations of various sizes and across a range of different occupations. Very detailed questionnaires were sent and interviews were conducted by the HSL with the selected organisations and the information which they provided formed the basis of these widely respected case studies.
Yes, 'perception' is one of the most prominent issues within personal safety, and I greatly agree with the fact that overt body armour can often be perceived as very confrontational, especially when dealing with intoxicated members of the public or those who seriously dislike authority, your organisation or presence to begin with. In fact, you can find great detail and much more on topics like this an others on a Military Forum. For me, lone workers dealing with the public should be doing their utmost to express themselves as peaceful ambassadors within their line of work. Only covert body armour allow them to do exactly that, whilst still being protected.
Body armour is usually developed in numerous designs and configurations. A few of the most advanced armour options have been developed and are available for each the female and male varieties and embody shaped options for optimum safety and comfort. This text explores the assorted types of body armour available today. Continue reading below to study more about how they are used. Basic goal protective vests are designed as a basic armour vests for the Police and private safety companies. They provide entrance, again and aspect ballistic protection. Concealable Vests have been designed to observe the contours of the body and provide entrance, back and aspect ballistic protection. High visible operations garments have been designed to be used by personnel who must be simply recognized such as traffic police.
Police Assault Vests are designed for over-the-uniform put on, providing full front, back, aspect, neck and shoulder ballistic protection. They are generally used by Police, Army and Special Forces. Army Assault vests are designed to be high-mobility entrance opening vests and are to be worn over a soldier’s uniform. They usually have entrance, again, facet and shoulder ballistic protection; with ballistic collar and throat protector, and detachable groin protector. Demining Vests have been particularly designed for deminers and specialists within the Army and Police who search for mines and explosives. These vests are designed to offer the maximum possible protection towards fragments and explosions from detonating mines. They provide entrance, back and facet fragmentation protection; with detachable groin protectors.
Demining Aprons are additionally particularly designed for deminers and specialists in the Army and Police who search for mines and explosives. These suits are designed to provide the maximum potential protection towards fragments and explosions from detonating anti-personnel mines. IED search suits are especially designed for specialists within the Military and Police who seek for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). These suits are designed to offer full physique protection towards fragments and explosions. Armour plates are often produced from excessive-efficiency metal, ceramic and lightweight polyethylene armour plates, designed to fit all these vests and provide safety against excessive-velocity weapons, overlaying NIJ Level III and IV (armour piercing).
The fact of the matter is that there is usually an 'unknown' level of risk due to unforeseen circumstances. Ordinary risk assessments might often conclude in the verdict of 'low risk', however these often very basic risk assessments are based on technical facts or 'on-hand information' only, and as much as I appreciate them, they often do not exceed these facts. A risk assessment dealing with the activity of a lone worker having to enter someone else's property or deal with customers or clients on a one-to-one basis can in my opinion, never ever result in low risk. Whenever a lone worker walks through someone's door or deals with often unfamiliar members of the memory club at another location, one can simply not know who else will be in the house, who else might enter the house at a later point, what activities have taken place prior to your colleagues visit or who else might be going to interfere or engage in their conversation or argument at a later point.
If you were driving a car and your petrol light comes on, indicating you only have a bit of petrol left. What would you do? Would you start thinking: Will I make it home or not? Some people would be willing to take the risk in this situation. In the workplace though, in my view, it is the duty of the employer to not allow their employees to take unknown risks of their own accord without the provision of gear and training to protect them should they make a mistake in their own judgement. 'Better safe than sorry' and 'Prevention is better than cure' are two great sayings, making more sense within corporate health & safety than any where else. I hope you would stop and get some fuel, because you want to be on the safe side. You might have made it, but you didn't want to take that risk. The bottom line is you cannot afford to break down. The fact that a lone workers activity involves a rather 'unknown risk' must urge key decision makers to remain at least open minded when it comes to body armour or additional lone worker safety training that can be made available.
Supporting body armour does not mean we suggest you are in danger, we simply say that you will have a higher chance of remaining unharmed in the unlikely, but possible, case of something going wrong. Wearing personal protective equipment can be compared to wearing a seat belt when driving a car. We do not put the seat belt on because we believe we are going to have an accident today. We are simply acknowledging the fact that there is an exceptionally small chance that we might crash. Yet, if this chance becomes reality, you have increased the chance of survival by wearing a seat belt.