November 18, 2003
The Honorable John Ashcroft
United States Attorney General
Department of Justice
10th and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear General Ashcroft:
Thank you for your letter that we
received today in response to our letter of November
5, 2003, regarding the quality of bulletproof vests under the
Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Acts of 1998 and 2000, which we
co-authored.
We applaud your agreement to inspect
new and used Zylon-based bulletproof vests, as well as the upgrade
kits provided by manufacturers to retrofit Zylon-based bulletproof
vests, and to re-examine and, if necessary, issue prompt revisions
of, the voluntary compliance standards and certification processes
used by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA) for testing and evaluating body armor that
is reimbursable under the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Acts.
Since we last wrote to you, law
enforcement officials across the nation have raised more concerns
about the effectiveness of ballistic body armor made with Zylon.
Toyobo Corporation of Japan, a maker of Zylon, has
made several recent
disclosures
regarding Zylon ballistic fabric degradation problems.
Toyobo has warned armament companies that
its accelerated aging tests were producing some observations of
concern and raised the potential problem of strength decreases of
Zylon under high temperature and humidity conditions. This
alarming data appears to confirm that
Zylon fails to maintain its ability to serve as an effective fiber
for the manufacture of protective body armor.
In addition, it
has come to our attention that up to 35 body armor manufacturers
nationwide continue to produce, market
and sell Zylon-based vests in one fabric configuration or another.
To our knowledge, only Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., (“Second
Chance”), of Central Lake, Michigan, has rightly
removed from its product line all vests constructed with Zylon
fibers.
While you have agreed to determine
whether or not defective bulletproof vests were knowingly sold by
Second Chance, we strongly believe that
any
body
armor manufacturer that knowingly
produces, markets or sells Zylon-based vests that are defective
should be included in that investigation. Any
body
armor manufacturer that knowingly
produces, markets or sells defective Zylon-based vests to our
nation’s law enforcement officers – thus callously subjecting our
nation’s law enforcement officers to life-threatening risks – should
be prohibited from participating in the Bulletproof Vest Partnership
Grant Program.
Of equally grave concern to us is that
the NIJ’s voluntary testing protocols and minimum standards for body
armor may be insufficient.
The NIJ
and its National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)
have created a voluntary compliance testing program to
assess whether models of ballistic-resistant body armor comply with
a certain minimum standard of protection and resistance. All models
of ballistic-resistant body armor that comply with
NIJ Standard-0101.03,
NIJ Standard-0101.04 or
NIJ Standard-0115.00 are eligible for funding under the
Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act.
We are concerned, however, that these
standards may not be rigorous enough and that the certification
process might not be onerous enough, thereby subjecting our nation’s
law enforcement officers to severe safety risks.
The NIJ testing protocols only rate
body armor in the newest possible condition, and therefore the NIJ’s
certifying test results are not necessarily applicable to body armor
that was actually worn by officers in the field. We wholehearted
support your decision to direct the NIJ, within 90 days, to
re-examine and, if necessary, issue prompt revisions of, the
voluntary compliance standards and certification processes used for
testing and evaluating body armor that is reimbursable under the
Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Acts. As the principal authors
of the legislation, we respectfully request that you provide a copy
of the NIJ report on bulletproof vest standards to us when it is
completed.
We also fully support the law
enforcement summit to review the information available from NIJ’s
report and to discuss the future of bullet-resistant technology and
testing technology. As the principal authors of the Bulletproof
Vest Partnership Grant Acts of 1998 and 2000, we respectfully
request that we participate in this summit.
We look forward to working with you
and the Department of Justice to ensure that our nation’s law
enforcement officers are provided with the highest quality of body
armor available under the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant
Program.
Sincerely,
PATRICK
LEAHY
BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL
U.S.
Senator
U.S. Senator
