Eileen Zeidler Miami Airport
Last updated 18
August 1997
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Diary of events
August 1997
Partners in Safety has now officially closed down. The
arrangements with Virgin Cargo have now been discontinued, although we have left a
facility to ship any stray boxes which were in the pipeline at the point of closure, but
had not been packed for shipping.
The web site will remain, as an example of what can be achieved by law enforcement
personnel when they get together and determine to do something. This has been a remarkable
achievement and all who were involved in it should feel justly proud of their efforts.
Arrangements are in hand for a fitting end to the program - some
of those involved are meeting up at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in
Washington DC during Memorial Week in May 1998.
July 1997
With the assistance of Police Review magazine, it has now been
established that every UK police force is either issuing ballistic vests, testing various
models, or has tenders out for the supply of vests.
One of our concerns with the donated vests was that we did not want them to be issued and
quickly made redundant by official issue. This would leave the same disposal problems as
are experienced in USA & Canada.
In keeping with the promise we made back in 1994, we will not issue vests to any forces
which are making official issue, or are committed to doing so. Accordingly, we are
starting the process of closing down Partners in Safety.
April 1997
My attempts to survey the UK police forces in order to confirm
that they are all now issuing body armour have failed. It appears that I am still Public
Enemy Number 1 in matters of body armour. My faxes to every UK force have gone unanswered
with one exception, which tells me that officers are not interested in body armour!
I have launched plan B which entails getting the information via a third party. I expect
it to confirm that vests are now being issued or prepared to be issued in every force. If
that is the case we will plan on closing the program in the next few weeks.
March 1997
The London Metropolitan Police have now started to issue the
MetVest to every operational officer. Many departments around the UK have been watching
the development of this vest with interest. There is some concern about its protective
qualities, although the official line seems to be that 'any protection is better than
nothing' This is of course the same opinion which was expressed at the start of our
project, and was criticised by those who now state it. I have started to survey UK
departments in an effort to establish exactly how many of them are issuing vests and what
% of the police population have access to them.
February 1997
It does indeed look like this year will see the end of Partners
in Safety. I have been making enquiries with various UK police departments and find that
many of them are preparing to issue vests. Several have already invited tenders for vests,
and others have started trials of different types of vest. The London Metropolitan issue
of their MetVest looks like taking place in the very near future, and this is likely to be
a watershed as it will equip around 27,000 officers with a personal issue vest.
December 1996
Things will slow down now as we approach the end of the year,
but we will start 1997 in the hope that it will be the last year we need Partners in
Safety vests. Awareness of the value of body armour has been heightened considerably by
our activities, and many chief officers are now looking at issuing such equipment. Until
they do, we will continue to gather and issue vests. The vest teams have surpassed all
previous efforts during 1996. In particular, Paul Cook and his Canadian team have done
some great work there, not only in getting Canadian vests shipped, but in spreading word
about the project in general. My vote for co-ordinator of the year goes to Harriet Goldis.
She has worked tirelessly to feed information around Canada and USA, keeping Partners in
Safety in the spotlight and introducing many new donations of vests. On behalf of the
officers in the UK, thank you all for your efforts during the year. I hope you and your
families have a Happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous 1997.
Jim McNulty
November 1996
I've been neglecting the What's New page for a while as things
have been so busy here. Having now passed the 2nd anniversary of Partners in Safety, we
have managed to issue over 4,000 ballistic vests to unarmed officers around the UK. This
year had a slow start but became even more successful than the previous one. Our
co-ordinators around USA and Canada managed to overcome all sorts of problems and get
vests shipped in greater numbers than ever.
One thing we did not manage to circumvent was stoppage of a very large donation by the
RCMP. After an exchange of letters between the British Home Office and the Canadian
Solicitor-General, it was decided that the UK politicians' views would be upheld and no
RCMP vests would be donated.
August 1996
Several shipments have recently arrived via the co-ordinators at
Miami and Los Angeles, but the big news this month is that Harriet has finally worn down
the establishment and has shipped 425 vests to John DiCarlo, our San Francisco airport
co-ordinator. These are now en route to Mark at London and will be issued in the coming
weeks. Harriet's cure for the problem was to buy the 425 vests for $50 from the
county. As soon as they became her property, she donated them to the program!
July 1996
Inspector Dick Coleman (Bedfordshire Police, England) and his
wife Tina visited some our vest co-ordinators in Washington state this month. Dick and
Tina took time out from their vacation to meet up with Harriet Goldis, Paul Cook, Doug
Wyman, Bob Kegel, Bob Eden and others at the Peace Arch on the US/Canadian border. The
resultant TV publicity made its way right onto UK television screens via CNN and Sky TV.
Harriet explained the ongoing battle she is having with authorities to secure a donation
of over 400 vests. Dick was impressed to see first hand the massive effort of
co-ordinators, and had a letter published in a leading UK police journal to this effect.
June 1996
Vest shipments continue this month, with approximately 115 from
Canada being prepared by Lance Naismith. Also Harriet Goldis continues her negotiations
with the state officials in the hope of releasing another consignment from Washington
State. We also recently had a shipment from Mike Morehouse at Colorado. Inspector Dick
Coleman of Bedfordshire Police, England, has always been a supporter of the program, and
in July will visit WA state, where we hope he will join Harriet, Paul and others for a
publicity appearance, thanking them on behalf of his officers for vests received from
there recently.
May 1996
We have had two shipments of vests so far this month. Sgt John
Carroll at Broward County Sheriffs Office sent over around 200 vests from Miami. This is
the second batch John has sent. We also had a shipment of just over 70 vests from Devin
Chase at Torrance Police Dept, these being routed through Los Angeles. The research into
suitable types of vest continues here in UK, and several Chief officers are looking to
issue vests officially as soon as one is identified as meeting the unique UK standard for
blunt trauma. Despite the fact that no officer has ever required surgery for blunt trauma
injury, the UK government research facility has demanded trauma protection far in excess
of the NIJ standard.
April 1996
The program has slowed down recently, and the number of vests
shipped so far has stayed at just over 2000. There are a few shipments pending, some of
which have been delayed by administrative problems, or the need to arrange internal
transportation from the source department to the nearest Virgin airport.
We hope that in the next few weeks we will have more vests arriving at Heathrow, as the
slowing of the program has led to questions here about whether it has failed. The good
news is that several UK police departments have now decided that the issue of body armour
is unavoidable, and the government has finally given them the go ahead to study and
purchase it. We only issue vests to those depts which do not make armour available to
officers, so that reduces the demand slightly and lets us issue more quickly to those
depts who need vests.
March 1996
At long last, we have persuaded Mark Saxon to join the online
police world! Mark is a Sgt at London's Heathrow Airport and is the key to the receipt and
distribution of the vest boxes. He has set up a smooth delivery system with co-ordinators
in every UK force. Mark now shows in the Co-ordinators page as the shipment notification
point. Please ensure that he is aware of any pending shipments. Vests issued are now in
excess of 2000 and we have several shipment pending.
February 1996
The first vests to go through the shipping arrangement with
TNT(UK) have arrived, and have been delivered by TNT to various police station
co-ordinators. The new arrangement whereby boxes of 50 vests, and the list of the next 50
recipients, are sent to a local officer has proved to be more effective than the previous
system. Mark Saxon continues to run a smooth operation out of Heathrow and the
distribution of the vests normally takes place within 24 hours of arrival in the UK!
Great news from the UK side of the program is that the
courier firm TNT (UK) Ltd have agreed to deliver vests from Heathrow airport to any of the
UK co-ordinators free of charge! Mark sends the vests to the department
co-ordinators in boxes of 50, along with the list of officers who are next on the waiting
list. The assistance of TNT will expedite the distribution of the vests, and save the
officers the expense of postage costs.
Although the 1996 worldwide Roll
of Honour page was only created on 2 January, it already contains the names of several
officers to be killed on duty this year.
January 1996
The year has got off to a good start with vest shipments. We have received 215 vests
from the Broward County Sheriffs Department, in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. These were shipped
by Sgt John Carroll, who learned of the program during chat with PC Ian Harmer of the City
of London Police, when they met during Ian's visit to Florida. We also have 86 vests just
arrived from Los Angeles. These were collected by Devin Chase of Torrance PD and are now
being unpacked and issued by Mark Saxon.
December 1995
To date we have issued over 1500 sets of body armour to unarmed officers in the UK. The
exact figure changes on a daily basis, as vests arrive at Heathrow. All the vests are
collected by Mark Saxon from the Virgin shed. Recently Mark has streamlined the
distribution system by appointing a co-ordinator in each of the 52 UK police forces. This
officer receives a box of 50 vests and takes care of their internal issue to the officers
on the accompanying list provided by Mark.
One problem which continues to crop up is that of vest shipments not being notified to
Felicity. It is most important that we receive notification of the vest shipments. If
vests arrive at Heathrow unannounced, they are held in a storage facility, for which there
is a daily charge until the time of collection. This costs about £200 per box of vests.
As the program has no funding, we are unable to meet this cost. We have survived this so
far by virtue of Mark raising the money from local officers etc. This is by far the
greatest danger to the program and we would stress that it is essential that shipments be
notified no later than the day before they are delivered to the USA Virgin terminal.
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Last Updated: 26 August 1997
