WASHINGTON – As the country observes National Police Week, Delaware Capitol Police Sergeant Michael Manley and Corporal Steve Rinehart, whose lives were saved by protective vests purchased through the federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership, joined U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the urgent need to reauthorize the life-saving program. Senator Coons and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have pushed for passage of legislation they authored to strengthen and reauthorize the program, which was last reauthorized in 2008, but the bill is currently facing obstruction on the Senate floor. 

“For Delaware, the Bulletproof Vest Partnership and its benefits are real, tangible, and personal,” Senator Coons said. “Chief Horsman of the Capitol Police is with us here today, along with Sergeant Mike Manley and Corporal Steve Rinehart…who are here because of the grace of God, and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership.”

On February 11, 2013, bulletproof vests purchased through the federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership saved the lives of Sergeant Manley and Corporal Rinehart during a shooting at the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington. Both officers were struck, but survived because of their vests.

Testifying before the Committee Wednesday were Officer Ann Carrizales of the Stafford, Texas Police – another shooting survivor whose life was saved by the program – and International Association of Chiefs of Police President Chief Yousry Zakhary.

“We don’t get paid a lot of money, most officers can’t afford to buy their own custom vests,” Officer Carrizales said. “So we have to rely on funds or what we get from our agencies. It gives me great comfort to know that not only would this bill provide those funds, but it would also make sure that we are wearing vests that were tested and tried and proven to save our lives when it mattered most.”

The Bulletproof Vest Partnership is a competitive grant program that subsidizes the purchase of bullet-resistant and stab-resistant body armor by state and local law enforcement agencies. The program has supplied Delaware law enforcement with nearly 4,000 vests in the last five years. Nationwide, the program has subsidized more than a million vests, saving the lives of more than 3,000 police officers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Agencies can be reimbursed for up to 50 percent of the cost of body armor that complies with National Institute of Justice standards.

Last May, Senator Coons and Chairman Leahy re-introduced the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act to reauthorize the program, which is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The President’s budget proposal for FY14 zeroed out funding for the program, but Senator Coons, co-chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, pushed to restore it in the omnibus bill passed by Congress in January.

“The bottom line here is that this bill must pass, and we should not rest in our efforts to do what’s right by public safety officers all over this country while they continue to risk their lives,” Senator Coons said. “In the middle of Police Week – while we mourn the loss of 268 officers who died and whose names have been added to the Police Memorial – between last night’s candlelight vigil and tomorrow’s wreath-laying ceremony, we have an opportunity to once again, in a bipartisan way, commit ourselves…to reaffirming the federal commitment to state and local law enforcement and to officer safety.”