In a new effort to keep city police officers safe, a pilot program is armoring some NYPD vehicles to make them bullet-resistant. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.
The NYPD says it is time to step up its protection of officers riding in patrol cars.
Bullet-resistant panels have been placed over the front doors of 60 police vehicles, and special inserts have been placed in the front windows.
"When we do a felony traffic stop, the officers are trained to stand behind their doors while they exit the people in the suspect vehicle. So the door gives an extra margin of protection, particularly if it has a ballistic plate on the doors as well as the windows," said Police Commissioner William Bratton.
After the shooting deaths of detectives Rafael Ramos, Weijin Liu and Brian Moore, who were all killed while sitting in NYPD vehicles, the department began to examine how to better protect officers.
The panels can stop bullets up to a .44-caliber and, in some cases, a shotgun blast. The panel placed on car windows is more than an inch thick.
"The idea of field testing these will be to insure that they meet our officers' needs," Bratton said. "I believe we were one of the first departments in the country to launch this extensive size test."
It costs about $4,200 per vehicle to retrofit them with the ballistic panels. Police who use the panels will need to determine if they help or hinder their jobs.
"You want to be able to interact with the community. You want to be able to roll your window down to give directions if you get asked those questions. So we are concerned about that being compromised and you also don't want to reduce the safety of the vehicle. You want to be able to see out of your sideview mirror."
As well as protecting police officers from bullets, the panels are also made to remove quickly in case officers have to climb out of the window in an emergency.
If the pilot program is successful, the NYPD could install the ballistic panels on 4,000 NYPD vehicles.