Suit: Company’s bulletproof vests fall down on the job
Bulletproof vests made by Pompano Beach-based Point Blank Enterprises are falling apart while being worn on the job, putting the lives of law enforcement officers at risk, two federal lawsuits are claiming.
The lawsuits accuse Point Blank of substituting genuine Velcro straps formerly used to keep the vests covering officers’ chests and backs with a cheaper hook-and-loop material that doesn’t last as long as promised.
Some police officers resorted to using duct tape or electrical tape to keep their vests together, one suit says.
“Due to inherent manufacturing defects, the [vests] pose a lifethreatening safety issue and cannot be reasonably relied upon for their intended use,” said one of the suits, filed on behalf of plaintiff Miguel Porras, a 27-year sergeant in the Glendale, Calif., Police Department.
The straps and hooks system meant to secure the vests over officers’ shoulders “deteriorates and weakens to the point where, well within the five-year useful life and warranty period of the vests, it does not have sufficient strength to securely support the weight of the vest when on an officer and falls apart, even though cycling the [system] is its intended use,” the suit claims.
Porras said the straps and hooks on his vest failed within a year, coming apart at the shoulder connection. When that happened, it fell down inside his uniform, forcing him “to stop what he’s doing while on duty, find a safe place, remove his uniform and attempt to reattach the failed … connection (s).”
Porras’ suit, which seeks classaction status, was filed on March 1 in California by three law firms — Johnson Fistel LLP of San Diego, Calif.; Complex Law Group LLC of Marietta, Ga.; and Kanner & Whiteley LLC of New Orleans, La. The suit was transferred last week to U.S. District Court in Miami.
Another suit introduced by the same attorneys was filed in December on behalf of the Ohio State Troopers Association Inc., the Sarasota-based International Union of Police Associations and five troopers. The suit claims that troopers who complained to the company were sent replacement straps that didn’t work and were forced to use duct tape or electrical tape to hold the back and front together.
Point Blank, in a Nov. 5 news release announcing the denial of class action status of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the same associations and five troopers, said the shoulder straps are safe.
“Point Blank has provided millions of vests to the U.S. military and U.S. law enforcement and no officer has been injured as a result
of the manufacturing and/ or design defects the plaintiffs allege, and in fact, many officers’ lives have been saved,” the statement said.
In a statement provided to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the company said that more than 200 officers’ lives have been saved by its vests since 2006. Sworn affidavits by five law enforcement officers who have been using the vests for years also attest to their safety.
Don Donato, a Pembroke Pines officer, wrote that he has been wearing the company’s vests for 13 years and never had a problem. He added that he removes the vest by undoing the side straps and pulling it over his head.
He never separates the shoulder straps to take it off or put it on, nor has he witnessed his fellow officers doing so, Donato wrote.
Another sworn declaration, by Hoyt Schmidt, executive vice president at Point Blank, said the company sold 443,395 vests between Jan. 1, 2013, and July 16, 2018 and fewer than 222 were returned for issues with the shoulder strap or c-clamp that the straps loop through. Of those, many of the problems stemmed from the stitching, not the “alleged loss of adhesion that Plaintiffs complain about,” Schmidt wrote.
Point Blank, with about 1,200 employees in Broward County, says it’s the largest global supplier of ballistic armor systems in the world. Clients include the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense, plus numerous law enforcement and corrections organizations and security personnel. In June, the company announced a $215.9 million contract to provide lightweight body armor to the Marine Corps.
In dismissing the earlier claim filed by the two police organizations and three of the Ohio troopers, the court determined that the plaintiffs failed to target their complaints against only models they purchased rather than all of Point Blank’s models that use the hook and loop material, according to David Cohen, one of the plaintiffs attorneys.
The new complaint they filed in December specified seven models, and in June, the court ruled that the case could go forward, Cohen said.
The company has faced other claims it made and sold defective body armor.
In 2011, the company paid the federal government $1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act “by knowingly manufacturing and selling” defective bulletproof vests made with Zylon, a synthetic polymer made by the Toyobo Corp. that failed to protect two police officers from gunshot wounds in 2003. Numerous other companies that used the material in body armor also settled claims with the government, according to the Department of Justice.