The Police Department’s Patrol Guide dictates that detectives must wear the vest when performing enforcement duty, such as making an arrest. Other times, it is up to the detective. “If I was just going to interview somebody, and you don’t feel that there’s a threat, me personally, I wouldn’t wear it,” said Steve Panagopoulos, a former detective in Brooklyn who retired in 2015. “I don’t think the majority of detectives wear them just conducting investigations.” “After you’ve been working for a while, I won’t say you blow it off, but you say ‘It’s not going to happen to me,’” Mr. Panagopoulos said. “You just don’t wear it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/n...roof-vest.html