Vest questions

[bluelightzgrl]

Do you always wear your vest when you're on the job? (PLEASE say yes!)
Like Darin said, anytime the uniform goes on the vest is on. No question, ALWAYS! Plus it's policy.

Does your dept. issue yours, or do you have to purchase one yourself?
Issued

If your dept. does issue yours and you find that's much better quality, do you have to get permission from your dept to wear it? Will your dept. reimburse you for it or give you some sort of allowance towards it if you purchase one yourself?
No reimbursment, no questions, as long as you have one on.

What is the life span of a typical vest?
5 years

Sorry for all the questions. Just curious.
You should hear the questions I get from my friends now that I'm back home... :eek:

Thanks in advance.
:cool:

[ChesCopPodz]

Whenever the uniform goes on. I even put mine under my training uniform (polo shirt and BDU pants) because it'll be my luck to come across something on my way to training.

Department issued

No special vest guidlines. Needs approval just like every other piece of non-issued equipment would

Replaced by the department every 5 years.

[marinepilot]

Do you always wear your vest when you're on the job? (PLEASE say yes!) Most of the time, but somedays I forget or just don't have the time to get it on before heading in. Although I usually have it in the car (my personal car that is) so I could get in on in a hurry.

Does your dept. issue yours, or do you have to purchase one yourself? Our dept just recently got a huge grant (after VT) to purchase the ballistic vests for us, so now the one I wear is issued. Before that you had to buy one yourself or ask some of the other agencies around if they had any hand-me-downs. Even so, we still don't have a dept policy mandating wear of the vest.

If your dept. does issue yours and you find that's much better quality, do you have to get permission from your dept to wear it? Will your dept. reimburse you for it or give you some sort of allowance towards it if you purchase one yourself? As stated above, we had to buy our own before the issue. There is no reimbursement for ANYTHING in my dept (just bought my SECOND personal holster), so if I want to get a different one, no problem as long as I pay for it.

What is the life span of a typical vest? Asked and answered by many, 5 years.

Sorry for all the questions. Just curious. Kate, you've asked a good question here, get a lot of people thinking. Please don't apologize for that!

Thanks in advance.

I really don't like wearing my vest, especially since I'm on a college campus where pretty much nothing happens on a routine basis. But I do wear it, mainly so that I can be around for my family. It's that one time when I just KNOW I won't need it that I WILL need it, so better to be inconvenienced and uncomfortable for a bunch of hours per day and go home and complain about it than to not go home after that shift!