Until the late 1960s, the use of body armor was not a common practice among law enforcement officers. Work initiated by the National Institute of Justice helped to develop new materials that could effectively stop bullets and be used to create lightweight body armor that officers could wear full time while on duty. Information compiled in 1998 during a congressional inquiry showed that between 1985 and 1994, 709 law enforcement officers had been killed during felonious assaults.¹ Additional research indicated that, although bullet-resistant vests had saved the lives of multiple officers during this same time period, many agencies still did not issue protective vests to their officers.