Little Rock ambulance crews to get bullet-resistant vests

LITTLE ROCK-The Little Rock Ambulance Authority has approved the purchase of bullet-resistant vests for Arkansas' largest ambulance service.

The authority approved the purchase Tuesday.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service of Little Rock will spend $275,000 for 275 vests, and it plans to have medics fitted and equipped in six weeks. All medics, with a few exceptions, will be required to wear body armor over their uniforms while on duty.

The ambulance service began testing six bullet-resistance vests from three manufacturers in the spring.

MEMS will purchase 245 polymer fiber vests, which are designed to stop fire from small firearms like handguns, along with 30 steel-plated vests. The vests will be bought with funds from the ambulance authority's $23.5 million annual operating budget, and MEMS plans to replace the vests every five years.

MEMS executive director Jon Swanson says the agency started researching new body armor in late 2015, and the "seminal event" in the decision to buy body armor was the killing of a central Arkansas firefighter in January.

Firefighter Ronald Adams was fatally shot while responding to a North Little Rock home where someone was reported as having a seizure.

Swanson says recent shootings, like the ones in Dallas, Louisiana, and Florida, has made getting the body armor more urgent.

"We learn lessons as we look at the situations from Orlando, Baton Rouge -- all of these situations give us more of a sense of information, and a sense of reality, that when you find yourself in the middle of one of these deals, you can't go home and dress out for something. You have to react with what you have in front of you right now," Swanson said.

MEMS serves about 540,000 residents in Pulaski, Faulkner, Grant and Lonoke counties.

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