ORLANDO, Fla. — Lots of central Florida residents have gone onto Channel 9's Facebook page to send their condolences to the Ocala Police Department and the family of an officer who was killed during training exercises on Monday.
Officer Jared Foresythe, 33, died shortly after he was hit by a ricocheting bullet, even though he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Channel 9's Jamie Holmes got a look at how the vests are vulnerable to gunfire.
Raw: Bulletproof vest vulnerability | How to safely unload a Glock
Photos: Closeup look at Glock, vest
There are some parts of an officer's job that are routine, including training and practice at the shooting range, where some officers fire thousands of bullets during their career in an effort to retain the muscle memory needed for quick reaction in a life-or-death situation.
Overwhelmingly, officers who participated in a national survey agreed the vest is a crucial life-saving device, even with the variations in the caliber of bullets it can take, but there is a key area it does not protect: the region around the arms, where a round can go into the chest cavity.
According to a 30-year study, more than 3,000 lives have been saved since the first officer was shot wearing a modern vest in 1972. The majority of failures that have happened were because heavy-duty rounds penetrated the vest, experts said.
But there's no recent data on failures of the vest because the round essentially hit a part of the officer's body that was not covered.
There are some specialty military and tactical vests that do cover the arms and throat, but the price far exceeds what's currently available for most street officers, meaning for most cops, the traditional vest is their only choice.
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