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13 www.officer.com June 2014 Law Enforcement Technology EQUIPPING THE OFFICER Uniforms continue to evolve as technology drives design By Carole Moore B ack when the West was really wild and settlers traveled over land by wagon train, justice often prevailed in the form of men who wore beat-up old tin stars pinned to their shirts. Uniforms didn't exist—at least not in this country. American departments were slow to adopt standard dress. Some sources say U.S. officers deliberately delayed their use out of fear that they'd make the wearer look ridiculous. But in 1854, the NYPD took the plunge. Other departments soon followed suit, often outfitting their officers in surplus they'd scavenged from Civil War leftovers. As most large metropolitan depart- ments donned uniforms, the majority of rural departments continued to ignore the trend, choosing to remain with civil- ian dress until well after the dawn of the Twentieth Century. But by the mid-cen- tury mark, most agencies in this country had given in to the trend. The way we were Up through the 50s, the military look dominated police wear. Officers from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties were the first to enjoy uniforms designed specifi- cally for police. Retired Durham, N.C. Deputy Police Chief Kent Fletcher says that when he initially reported for duty in 1971, his department employed different uniforms for summer and winter. The summer uniform was gray with an open collar and a button-up shirt, and the trousers were gray with a "darker gray, almost blue stripe down the side." Bulky leather shoes won the footrace. "In the wintertime we switched to a long-sleeved gray shirt with dark blue pants, a wool blend, and we had the old eight-point bus driver hat," he says. A clip-on tie completed the look. He adds that there were no problems outfitting female officers at the time because there were no female officers on the department. "I had a pistol, handcuffs, bullet hold- ers, a nightstick and that was it. These kids now, they've got two sets of hand- cuffs, a stun gun, a pistol, a nightstick holder, a thing to carry rubber gloves...I don't know how they get it all on there," says Fletcher. He recalls the uniforms were wash- and-wear and fairly comfortable, although the hats served little practi- cal purpose. Still, they helped enhance command presence and, says Fletcher, "I think the hat is the one part of the uni- form which can really make it look nice or can detract from its appearance." Joseph Walker of the Malden, Mass., Police Dept., a town north of Boston, is a 20-year veteran of police work. Walker says the biggest improvement in police uniforms over the past two decades is, in his opinion, their ability to accommodate body armor under the uniform shirt. Back in the early days of body armor, vests not only weighed what felt like a ton, they were also uncomfortable, if not impossible to wear while on patrol. And, since few patrol officers took the time to strap on their vests while out on routine calls, officers usually wore them only when they had to. That led to needless deaths and calls for lighter, cooler and more flexible body armor. Walker says that's what police clothing manufacturers have been developing for the past decade. "You were almost confined, with very, very little movement. Now, (manufactur- ers) have come leaps and bounds with the outside carrier. That is like winning the lottery," says Walker, who admitted that when he first started working mid- nights a decade ago, he stopped wearing his vest. But once he found a more com- fortable, lightweight and modern solu- tion, he got with the program and now doesn't hit the streets without it. Progress and change Richard J. Lerman, president and CEO of the North-American Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors (NAUMD) agrees with Walker that today's body armor is constructed of more efficient materi- als, making it infinitely more wearable. "The newest trend in body armor is to make the vest almost invisible by well-dressed officer The Photo courtesy of ArmorSkin LET_12-15_DressedOfficer0614.indd 13 5/20/14 1:42 PM