The original coolpads used in the vest also had a problem: They needed to be refilled with water every hour. Empa developed a portable filling station that can be attached to the vest with a quick-release fastener.
“The original coolpad membrane, when filled with water, could cool for about an hour,” explains Weder. “But for law enforcement applications, that timeframe was too short. We developed a flexible bottle in the vest that can be filled with water and lengthen the cooling time to three hours.”
Zurich City police officers tested the vest in 2011. “The police who tested it have been very pleased with it and said it offered quite a bit of cooling efficiency,” says Weder, who notes with testing under their belts, Unico plans to bring the vest to market at the end of 2012. “Unico will feed a small number of vests into the market and when they get feedback from the marketplace they plan to do a greater release,” Weder says.
Canterbury sees the development as positive, stating, “The biggest obstacle to wearing a vest is the heat. As armor improves and the weight goes down, wear rates go up.”
And as wear rates increase so does officer safety. A protected officer is one who goes home at night, not one who pays the ultimate sacrifice as he or she serves and protects.
Ronnie Garrett is a freelance writer based in Fort Atkinson, Wis.
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