Lions donate ballistic vests to school resource officers
The Loveland Lions Club has continued in its donation mission recently, giving three ballistic vests to members of the Loveland Police Department.
The club members, who met for a meeting Wednesday afternoon, donated three ballistic vests with rifle rated plates to three school resource officers. These shields, according to Lions Club member Denny Soucek, were given to the LPD through the Lions and Shield616, a Colorado Springs non-profit that supports law enforcement agencies.
Each vest cost $1,800, according to Soucek.
He said that this is one of the Lions' many donations projects that they do regularly, alongside other projects like their eyeglasses program.
Interim Police Chief Eric Stewart said the vests, which will go straight to three school resource officers, come with rifle plates, which he described as lightweight ballistic plates that can be added to a vest to handle higher capacity rounds.
"A lot of people in the community want to safeguard our officers. If we can provide the equipment to do that, I think it is beneficial for the community," Soucek said. "Nobody wants officers to go out and not be well equipped, so they can save their lives or reduce the chance of being killed."
Stewart said the department is incredibly grateful for the vest donation, saying that the expensive equipment will go a long way to help officers stay safe in a potentially dangerous situation and, in turn, help make citizens safer as well.
"When you are talking about equipment being donated that saves officers lives … (it) is fantastic," he said. "For them to be willing to provide the funds needed to provide that equipment to our officers is fantastic because it is a huge cost. We are blessed, quite frankly, to have the support of the Lions Club."