Deputies test load-bearing vests as duty belts alternative
Often plagued by chronic back and hip pain that comes with carrying heavy duty belts, Orange County deputies could someday suit up with an alternative way of holding their equipment: load-bearing vests.
The Sheriff’s Office has acquired a dozen vests to test on deputies who volunteered for a six-month trial period. The new gear, which was the subject of a research study the Sentinel wrote about in December, have been touted as a way to distribute the weight of a deputy’s equipment — often carried on their belts — to reduce pain and provide more comfort.
“The goal of this test is to try and get equipment off the duty belt and onto the vest to reduce the amount of weight on [your] back and hips,” OCSO Capt. Todd Gardiner said in a January email to the agency’s Human Resources director, during the beginning of talks to acquire vests.
By April, the Sheriff’s Office had selected a handful of deputies to test and evaluate the new equipment, which the agency said it was granted for testing by the manufacturer, Point Blank Body Armor.
Last year, researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire partnered with its local police department to study whether the vests could provide health benefits to officers who suffer from chronic back and hip pain often attributed to duty belts, which can weigh up to 30 pounds.
In an interview with the Sentinel in December, Jeff Janot, a professor at the university who spearheaded the research project with students, called the results “dramatic.” Officers who wore the vests reported significantly lower average pain levels daily than ones wearing regular duty belts, he said.
A spokesman for the Orlando Police Department said the agency “will be exploring the outer vest carrier option” but did not provide any more details or a timeline for when testing may take place.
The vest OCSO is testing can hold the deputy’s magazine, handcuffs, radio, pepper spray, baton, flashlight and tourniquets and “works with our existing soft body armor panels and allows the deputy to switch panels easily from the load bearing vest
back to their standard under the shirt vest carrier,” Gardiner said in an April email to other employees.
The deputy’s gun and Taser will remain on the duty belt.
“The load bearing vest appears to be a viable means to redistribute the weight from the gun belt without compromising the formidability of the body armor,” Gardiner wrote in the email.
After the testing period, participating deputies will be asked to write memos detailing the pros and cons of the new equipment and “whether it assisted in reducing
back and hip pain associated from the gun belt.”
The Fraternal Order of Police chapters that represent Orange County deputies and Orlando police officers have shared links on their Facebook pages to stories about other law enforcement agencies making a switch to load-bearing vests. The posts have drawn positive responses, with many commenters indicating they would welcome the change.
Shawn Dunlap, president of the union that represent’s OPD, said officers “absolutely love the idea” of acquiring load-bearing vests. During his 23 years as an officer, Dunlap said he experienced “constant lower back pain” as a result of the inner vest OPD officers are typically required to wear underneath their uniforms.
The outer load-bearing vests could replace those inner ones, and would allow officers to remove the gear when performing tasks not related to patrol duties, such as work at the police station, Dunlap said.
“They would have the ability in that secure facility to take that vest off to cool off,” Dunlap said.
The inner vest can’t be removed while on duty, and on summer days in Florida, “it’s soaking wet for the entire day,” Dunlap said. “It’s brutal. Especially at this time of year.”