A potentially deadly situation.
The Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation after discovering that an Ohio police department had bought counterfeit body armor made in China for use by its SWAT unit, according to Fox 8.
“We were notified by the Department of Homeland Security that the plates that we had were some of those plates that were found to be counterfeit and so as a result of that, we need to replace them,” Akron Police Captain Agostino Micozzi said during a city council Monday.
The probe into the phony life-saving gear shows that the armor was imported from China and does not meet the standards of the National Institute of Justice, according to the outlet.
“They’re a hard ceramic type plate,” Micozzi explained to the Akron City Council. “And there’s one on the front and one on the back and one on each side, just from rifle rounds and more dangerous ordnance.”
Given how crucial the gear is to any law enforcement agency, Micozzi asked the council for immediate funds to replace the fraudulent body armor used by its SWAT Unit — which costs a staggering $1,300 per plate.
The department will need to replace 40 plates, coming out to $52,000.
Without hesitation, the Akron City Council unanimously approved the request.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards for performance-level body armor require that the bullet does not perforate the vest and that the vest protects against blunt trauma.
“The NIJ standard is the only nationally accepted standard for the body armor worn by law enforcement and corrections officers,” according to their website.
The issue of selling bogus body armor made in China is nothing new in the United States.
In 2021, a Texas man pleaded guilty to selling “Chinese-made military helmets, body armor, and other products” to the United States Department of State and other federal agencies while passing them off as US-made gear.
Tanner Jackson, 32, the owner of Top Body Armor, faced up to 20 years in prison for his crime.
However, he ended up pleading guilty to lesser wire fraud charges and was sentenced to 33 months in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
In March, a Washington State man also faced a lengthy prison sentence for “knowingly and intentionally marketing and selling low-quality ballistic protective equipment produced in China to dozens of domestic law enforcement agencies and the US Military,” according to the Office of Inspector General.
Jeffrey Meining, 42, the owner of BulletProof-IT, falsely claimed his gear, including ballistic helmets, shields, and plates, was made in the United States when, in fact, it was purchased from a Chinese company — some as far back as December 2017.
Meining also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison and three years of supervised release.
