BALDWIN – As time on patrol becomes more dangerous, many small law enforcement agencies find themselves challenged with how to pay for updated protective gear.
Such was the case for Baldwin Police Department until a recent donation came through to equip all the department’s officers with new ballistic vests.
Georgia Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) donated seven ballistic vests to the department through its Protect the Protectors Program.
FOP Second Vice President Craig Fulghum presented the vests to Baldwin Police Chief Charles Webb. Fulghum is a member of the ballistic vest committee for the Georgia FOP.
“I’m very proud to be able to do this,” Fulghum said. “This Protect the Protectors program has been in operation for about 10 years, and we’ve donated almost 1,000 vests out to Georgia municipalities, counties, chiefs and then across the state, even some state agencies.”
Operation Protect the Protector is designed to donated ballistic vests to law enforcement agencies across Georgia, specifically those agencies that have limited budgets.
Webb said the donation is very important to his officers.
“It’s great to get the help from the FOP,” Webb said. “It probably saved the taxpayers of Baldwin close to $4,000 on vests that we were actually trying to figure out how to find the money to get them. They came in with this way of helping us out and donated us these vests, so now our guys can be that much safer.”
Webb said the donation gives every officer who is on the road a new ballistic vest.
“The ones that they had were five years old and out of date,” Webb said.
Fulghum said the importance of every officer wearing a ballistic vest every day cannot be stressed enough.
“Officer safety is a very important issue to all of us in law enforcement, and the ballistic vest has been proven to save lives and reduce injuries,” Fulghum said, noting the vests must be replaced on the recommended schedule for maximum protection.
“Every officer should wear a ballistic vest every day,” Fulghum said. “The FOP is working to ensure that more officers within our state have this extra level of security.”
Fulghum said presenting the vests is special to him because he knows many of those who will be recipients.
“Being able to present these vests to officers that I have worked with over the years is special to me,” Fulghum said. “In the world we live in now it is extremely important that all law enforcement officers wear protective vests and the FOP is proud to assist in that effort.”
In addition to the vests, FOP presents a tourniquet with each ballistic vest donated.
“We’re giving tourniquets now,” Fulghum said. “That is unfortunately a part of the job. We’re called on more and more to do additional things, additional duties, and these officers are usually the first on scene and can really do a tremendous amount of good on lifesaving, especially on vehicle incidents. A little bit before the paramedics get there can determine between life and death in many cases.”
The Georgia FOP represents more than 4,000 law enforcement members across the state and is part of the nation’s largest law enforcement organization with more than 330,000 members nationwide. The FOP is committed to improving law enforcement through education, legislation and training for its members so they can provide quality service to the public.
As of the Baldwin delivery, the FOP had provided 940 vests to 161 agencies.
