{"id":93627,"date":"2019-06-07T20:37:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T02:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rifle-proof-vests-gifted-to-durango-police-department\/"},"modified":"2019-06-07T20:37:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T02:37:20","slug":"rifle-proof-vests-gifted-to-durango-police-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rifle-proof-vests-gifted-to-durango-police-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle-proof vests gifted to Durango Police Department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A row of different AR-15-style rifles are displayed for sale at the Firing-Line indoor range and gun shop in Aurora. Police departments across the nation are facing a higher threat of an active shooter situation involving an assault rifle, prompting Shield 616 to donate rifle-proof ballistic plates to first responders across the county. Shield 616 presented the Durango Police Department with 12 rifle-proof ballistic plates this week, with a total value of about $10,000.<\/span>Alex Brandon\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango Police Department received a gift this week it hopes to never use.<\/p>\n

Shield 616<\/a>, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado Springs that provides all-day rifle protection for first responders, donated $10,000 worth of ballistic plates to the police department, a total of 12 high-tech ceramic ballistic plates designed to protect first responders from the threat of an active shooter with an assault rifle, said Chris Brown, director of operations for Shield 616.<\/p>\n

Shield 616 has donated more than 3,500 ballistic plates to agencies in 14 states, Brown said.<\/p>\n

Very few calls to law enforcement involve an active shooter with a rifle, Brown said, so many law enforcement agencies cannot justify purchasing rifle-proof vest plates. But it\u2019s better to have the equipment and not need it than to need it and not have it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to justify an extremely expensive piece of equipment that may not be used ever,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut you track the events across the county, it\u2019s becoming more common.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding behind the donation came from Renewal by Andersen, a Denver-based window and patio door manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor each Renewal by Andersen window installed, $5 supports the Window of Giving program, providing paid volunteer time, \u2018wish list\u2019 donations, grant funding and sponsorships,\u201d wrote Betty Shea, Renewal by Andersen Window of Giving Program manager, in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cHelping police officers return home safely to their families at the end of their shift aligns with our belief of turning \u2018love into action,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Durango police Cmdr. Ray Shupe said each Durango police officer is equipped with a bulletproof vest strong enough to stop a bullet from a handgun but not a rifle. Brown said a man with an AK-47, which fires bullets at 2,350 feet-per-second, shot an officer wearing a typical bulletproof vest in 2015 in Colorado Springs. The round punctured the vest and hit the officer\u2019s heart, Brown said.<\/p>\n

The new rifle-proof ballistic plates are light and fit in standard-issue DPD bullet-proof vests, Shupe said. The plates are rated to stop a .223 Remington round, which can travel at speeds up to 3,400 feet per second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe face that threat on the street with larger capacity and higher power weapons \u2013 it\u2019s more prevalent now,\u201d Shupe said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to protect our officers from what they might be facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Springs nonprofit donates $10,000 worth of ballistic plates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1065,52,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-93627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-durango-police-department","tag-law-enforcement","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93627"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=93627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}