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Vests case may benefit police

The Clearwater and Tarpon Springs agencies could get part of a $29-million settlement over bulletproof vests that have Zylon.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published January 31, 2006

It was heralded as 10 times stronger than steel and a high-tech breakthrough for bulletproof vests when it was unveiled in 1998.

Now the Japanese-made synthetic fiber Zylon is all but off the market for police protection as questions mount about the integrity of the bullet-stopping material.

In recent years, the doubts have led officials in Largo, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to replace protective vests that have Zylon.

And in two of those cities, Clearwater and Tarpon Springs, officials plan to join in a $29-million federal class-action settlement involving police agencies nationwide.

Clearwater police officials said Monday they hope to receive $105,391 in credit and penalties from a Michigan company that sold the department 143 vests containing Zylon as part of the class-action settlement.

The city of Tarpon Springs, which purchased 30 vests with Zylon, will seek penalties as well that could total $22,110.

The vests, manufactured by Second Chance Body Armor, have already been replaced, police officials in both cities say.

The settlement money will help purchase additional vests and offset the costs of the future replacements.

The Largo Police Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office have also replaced vests with the synthetic material.

Largo police have replaced 49 vests. Tammi Bach, a Largo city attorney, said she was unaware of any pending litigation against Second Chance.

Mac McMullen, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said his department would not join the lawsuit because it had purchased fewer than five vests.

No local agency experienced problems with the Zylon vests, but questions began to arise across the country after a California officer was fatally shot wearing a similar vest in 2003.

In a subsequent lawsuit, documents revealed that Second Chance executives knew two years before the California shooting that Zylon vests weakened over time.

"Second Chance should make the right, difficult decisions regarding this issue. Lives and our credibility are at stake," the company's research director Aaron Westrick wrote to executives in 2001.

The company chose to stay silent.

The settlement, which was approved by a federal court in September, offers agencies the choice of $670 cash for each vest originally purchased or credit to purchase additional equipment with Second Chance's parent company, Armor Holding of Jacksonville, at $737 for each vest originally purchased.

A new vest costs about $510, according to Clearwater officials.

--Staff writers Jose Cardenas, Vanessa de la Torre and Nicole Johnson contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 31, 2006, 00:30:20]