Bullet resistant vests have become standard equipment for many law enforcement officers including the members of most state and local police departments. These vests are made of a fabric shell, usually of a woven material, containing compartments, usually in the form of pockets, which fully encircle the torso of the wearer, and in which are contained, so as to fully occupy the pockets, a plurality of removable panels of impact absorbing anti-ballistic material such as that known as KEVLAR.RTM., which is a registered trademark of E.I. duPont, Inc. for its poly-p-phenylene-terephthalamide arimid fiber. Other such materials are known as SPECTRA.RTM., a registered trademark of Allied Signal, Inc. for their ultra high molecular weight extended chain highly oriented polyethylene fibers and TWARON.RTM., a registered trademark of Akzo, Inc. The vests are designed so that the torso of the wearer is surrounded, at least from the neck to the waist, with a layer of the protective panels. These vests are commonly known by the public as bullet proof vests, and in the law enforcement community as body armor, and the terms are used interchangeably herein. Such vests resist and usually prevent penetration of most small arms bullets when effectively worn.
Routine usage of these vests provides law enforcement officers a degree of protection from injury or death from firearms. Such regular or routine usage, however, subjects the law enforcement officer to considerable inconvenience and discomfort. This usage requires the law enforcement officer to wear the vest throughout the entire workday, particularly on street duty. Such vests are often worn beneath the shirt of a standard uniform. While the panels of the vests will bend somewhat, they do not stretch or shear, and thus, when the vests are worn, they are stiff and constantly shift from their desired body protective position, requiring constant readjustment by a law enforcement officer wearing one.
In the line of ordinary duty, the law enforcement officer is highly active: walking, reaching, bending, twisting, and stretching while patrolling, entering and leaving vehicles, dealing with suspects and other members of the public, rendering assistance, dealing with disturbances, making arrests and engaging in other routine activities. In the course of such duty, vest panels that are only moderately flexible but inelastic, and that will bend somewhat but will not stretch, do not conform to the shape of the law enforcement officer's body as it moves over the course of the day.
In the design of bullet proof vests, various straps, ties and tails have been incorporated to retain the generally protective arrangement of the panels and to fit the vest assembly to the body of the wearer. These have not been effective to hold the vest in place throughout an officer's work day. The common experience of the law enforcement officer wearing these vests is that they tend to move upward on the body, away from the waist and toward and around the neck of the wearer, exposing much of the officer's midsection above the waist. The vests also have a tendency to twist in relation to the officer's body and outer clothing. Such shifting and movement of the vest on the body of the officer wearing one limits the protection that the vest provides and requires the wearer to take the time at frequent intervals throughout the day for readjustment of the vest and the clothing to move the vest back to its desired position on the wearer's body. Accordingly, there has been a long felt need for a system and method for anchoring such bullet proof vests in place when they are worn particularly by law enforcement officers.
More elaborate strapping attachments have been proposed for such types of protective garments as are used in military applications, particularly by those confined to vehicles such as combat aircraft and land vehicles, but these designs have not been suitable for the day to day use by a law enforcement officer.
The typical approach to the anchoring of bullet proof vests worn by law enforcement officers is the provision by the manufacturer of somewhat traditional shirt tails on the vest shell. Such tails rely on the holding power of the wearing officer's belt or pants to hold the vest down and in place at the level of the officer's waist. However, as the officer moves, such tails inevitably pull upward or toward one side. Once out of position, the tails do not return to their desired positions, but are instead held out of position by the belt or other parts of the outer uniform of the wearing officer.
Furthermore, bullet proof vests must be provided for law enforcement officers of a variety of sizes and shapes, male and female. Any vest component or vest anchoring system must be provided to accommodate all potential wearers. Because the market for such vests is far smaller than the market for most types of everyday clothing worn by the public, any garment that forms part of a vest anchoring system, if it must be made in a large number of sizes and shapes, will unacceptably increase the cost to law enforcement agencies or to individual law enforcement officers of dressing for duty with adequate body armor protection. The economic resources of both the law enforcement agencies and the individual law enforcement officers is typically quite limited. Thus, if an anchoring system and method for bullet proof vests is to be worn by most law enforcement officers and provide them the increased safety of a properly anchored vest, then it must be provided in a manner that is economically feasible to those who must pay for their procurement.
Thus, there is a need for an anchoring method and system for ballistic resistant vests worn by law enforcement officers in every day duty that retain the impact absorbing panels of such vests in effective protective positions while accommodating the mobility of the wearer, and preserve the comfort and neatness of the vest and the uniform of the wearing officer throughout the day.