Body armor

A bullet can strike a police officer in a blink, so their body armor must be proven to work. Feeling more under fire than ever, the law enforcement community is raising the standards for ballistic-resistant police body armor to stop more rifle bullets, like those often used by active shooters, in an effort led by OJP’s National Institute of Justice.

This plenary featured three significant areas of NIJ research investment that have had a tremendous impact on both the research community and the field of practice: advances in forensic DNA, police body armor standards, and place-based analyses of public safety. Each topic was explored by a collection of people representing the researcher, practitioner, policymaker, and advocacy perspectives, exploring how evidence generation resulted in changes that improved public safety and yielded more equitable criminal justice outcomes.