Oregon City Body Armor Carrier

[jnc36rcpd]

We currently have several styles of outer vest carriers in service. Some date from the test and evaluation period while others reflect changes in style by PT Armor. There is discussion of standardizing the carriers. The uniform committee is currently considering Safariland's Oregon City carrier. Anyone using this carrier or its previous evolution as the LAPD carrier? Thanks and be safe.

[secondstoryguy]

I just ordered one for patrol duties after they were authorized by our new chief(he's freaking awesome). Several other guys have them(The beta testers) and they love them. The look to be really well made and though out. Mine was $280 with two pouches and embroidered name tags/police patches. They are made to order so lead times are in the 1-1.5 month range. This is the one I ordered:
http://www.leedway.com/Safariland-Oregon-City-Armor-Carrier-p/ocac.htm

It has a lot of nice features like a low profile drag handle, a pocket for a BUG, and zippered front pockets.

If you order one make sure to take your girth measurement sitting down...according to the others is seems to help fit. Also, Blauer makes a uniform shirt specifically for outer carriers that looks promising. It's like the modern combat uniforms as the top half of it is a uniform shirt but the bottom is a thinner material that is far more comfortable under an armor carrier.

[sff70]

I am also looking at this model for our guys. It looks pretty good.

Contact Charles at LEEDS in Tacoma (get the ph # from the website www.leedway.com). He can send you a list of agencies that issue this model. It is not a short list, and it doesn't account for individual officers who bought it on their own dime and are using it with agency approval.

[karmapolice]

We've been running some of the blauer ones that looks like uniform shirts, the price is a third of the cost but the durability is more normal shirt like. I would love to see us go to something like this but I don't know if it would happen. For comfort the outer vest rules and the ability to go to plates or some sort of up armor situation that doesn't require the standard soft armor is nice as you can swap easy. It would be nice for le uniforms in general to catch up with modern improvements.

[secondstoryguy]

We have been authorized to wear the shirt-like outer carriers for some time. Durability is the reason I never purchased one as they get ragged looking a little to quickly for me.

[sff70]

Was able to get this from my email this evening:



Per Charles at LEEDs (WWW.LEEDWAY.COM) "We have sold over 2000 OCPD Carriers to various agency’s across the country . Attached is a list of agency’s that have the entire force wearing the carrier ."








<colgroup><col width="264" /><col width="200" /></colgroup>
Agencies Wearing Safariland External Armor Carriers from L.E.E.D.

Agency Model

Aurora PD (CO) OCAC
Augusta DPS (KS) OCAC
Albany PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Beaverton PD (OR) LAPD
Bend PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Canby PD (OR) LAPD
Clackamas Community Corrections (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Cowlitz CSO (WA) LAPD
Dillon PD (CO) OCAC
Dillon PD (MT) LAPD
Eugene PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Fairview PD (OR) LAPD
Fountain Valley PD (CA) OCPD
Forest Grove PD (OR) LAPD
Garden City PD (ID) LAPD
Gladstone PD (OR) LAPD
Grayson College PD (TX) LAPD
Greensberg PD (IN) LAPD
Gresham PD OCAC
Hillsboro PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Klamath Falls PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Klickitat County Sheriff's Office (WA) OCAC
Lake Oswego PD (OR) OCAC
Linn County Sheriff's Office LAPD
Linn County Parole & Probation (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Long Beach PD (WA) LAPD
Lower Windsor Township PD (PA) LAPD
Mason County Sheriff's Office (WA) LAPD
Milwaukie PD (OR) LAPD
Molalla PD (OR) OCAC
Montesano PD (WA) LAPD
Multnomah CSO (OR) LAPD
Newberg-Dundee PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Northbend PD (OR) LAPD
North Plains PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Oregon City PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Portland Community College PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Port of Portland PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Portland PB (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Renton PD (WA) LAPD
Richland PD (WA) LAPD/OCAC
Scappoose PD (OR) OCAC
Sherwood PD (OR) LAPD
Tillamook PD (OR) LAPD
Tri-Met Transit Police (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Troutdale PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
Tualatin PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC
U.S. Marshals Service, District of Oregon LAPD
Veterans Affairs Police (OR/WA) OCAC
VIA Metro Transit Police (San Antonio, TX) LAPD
Warrenton PD (OR) LAPD
Washington CSO (OR) LAPD
Washington State University PD (WA) LAPD
Washougal PD (OR) LAPD
Waynesboro PD (PA) LAPD
Westfield PD (MA) LAPD
West Manheim Township PD (PA) OCAC
West Linn PD (OR) LAPD/OCAC

[KeeFus]

We have been authorized to wear the shirt-like outer carriers for some time. Durability is the reason I never purchased one as they get ragged looking a little to quickly for me.

One of our guys has one of these. The admin almost shit themselves when he started wearing it. I could care less about them as long as it promotes them wearing a vest (he doesn't wear one otherwise). He still occasionally wears it, but as noted it doesnt seem that durable to me.

[Paul]

We have been authorized to wear the shirt-like outer carriers for some time. Durability is the reason I never purchased one as they get ragged looking a little to quickly for me.

We tested and nixed them for the same reason. The real reason is that we that turned into militarized thugs and start stomping on kittens and shaking babies, or at least that's what would have happened.

I would have gladly spent a few hundred bucks out of my own pocket every year to have the carriers. The biggest perk was not having my shirt bunch up around the collar and put constant pressure on the back of my neck.

If you used generically sized vests, generically sized carriers will work. Otherwise carriers need to be cut to fit the vest panels or there will be short officers that can't get their armor panels high enough on their bodies.

[MD7305]

We've been using Elbeco brand uniforms for about a year now and they use a uniform shirt style external carrier. The department replaced our vests at the same time so all the carriers and vest fit well together. It was a big deal because it made wearing a vest mandatory as otherwise you'd be out of uniform. Although I was totally against it, not because I don't wear a vest but because the setups I've seen looked awful. After several months I really like it, much more comfortable. Ours aren't load bearing other than what you'd carry in a normal uniform shirt pocket although it does have some cool hidden pockets built in to it. My biggest complaint is that our PD only issues Class-A uniforms and exterior vests are Class-B, at best. Looks weird, and that's with the normal shirt-like carrier.

[Paul]

If you order them you might want to reconsider the drag handles. I was backing up some detectives last night on warrant service that turned into a BP. Detectives are issued tactical outer carriers for their vest. One of the detectives is an idiot and when he would get on his cell phone he would start pacing around, and start to walk in front of the target location. Major situational awareness fail. First time I grabbed him by the arm, pulled him back and told him to knock it off. The second time I grabbed the handle on his vest, gave him a good yank to let him know my displeasure and dragged him a short distance down the street.

Drag handles aren't all that useful, but they are mighty dangerous around short tempered folks. If a bad guy gets a hold of the handle, he owns you. I'm leaving out a lot of details, point of the story is that a 5'7" 165lb man can rag doll a 6'2" 230lb man by grabbing on to the handle.

[secondstoryguy]

Good observation and some truth in that statement. I guess you could always cut it off if you decided against it.

[jnc36rcpd]

Good point on the drag handles. That said, the external carrier itself can be used as an attachment point by a suspect. We considered this after an annual use of force review. The consensus was that awareness was the best defense. I doubt our officer who got bounced around the Intoximeter room would allowed that to happen if he had seen it coming.

The chief wants to standardize on the carriers. Some officers have the uniform shirt models. I've grown to accept them albeit you have to ensure that the vest carrier hasn't faded more than the shirt. There are also various load-bearing vest carriers. Our vest manufacturer uses Velcro for attachment. The pouches are secure, but you're stuck with the manufacturer's pouches which are not the highest quality and don't fit our X2 tasers. The manufacturer has also redesigned the carrier over the years (for the better) which means officers have a variety of models.