Bulletproof Vest Purchase Elicits Protest

San Diego police, who according to one study have the highest mortality rate of any large department in the country, received a measure of protection Monday when the City Council approved buying 1,000 bulletproof vests.

But approval of the $239,030 contract was not without some opposition as officials of one losing bidder complained that they could have provided the same vests for $30,000 less.

Deputy Chief of Police Manuel Guaderrama, while acknowledging that the contract did not go to the lowest bidder, said the decision to recommend a protective vest made by Point Blank Armor Co. was made on the basis of garment flexibility and comfort.

“Police will be required to wear the vests full time and because of our hot weather, it was important to have a vest that’s comfortable,” Guaderrama said in an interview before the City Council hearing.

In August, Police Chief Bill Kolender ordered officers to wear armored vests. The order came in the wake of several officers’ being killed or injured in the line of duty.

Since 1977, 10 San Diego police officers have been killed in the line of duty. A study commissioned by the San Diego Police Officers Assn. found that San Diego has the highest mortality rate among departments in 51 large American cities.

Just last month, a detective on the city’s Narcotics Task Force, shot during a drug raid, suffered only a minor bruise on the chest because he was wearing a protective vest.

The new vests, for all uniformed officers and detectives, could be available in about a month.

Guaderrama noted that the order requiring wearing of the vests will be held in abeyance until the vests are delivered.

The City Council approved the contract with San Diego Police Equipment Co., the local distributor of Point Blank vests, with little discussion.

But officials representing American Body Armor and Equipment Inc. of Florida, which lost the contract despite submitting a lower bid, had a lot to say.

Robert Matthews, American Armor vice president, and Larry R. Whiteley, of L&A; Leather Co. of San Leandro, the company’s California distributor, complained that they were effectively locked out of the bidding process.

In addition, they said, Point Blank should not have been awarded the contract because the company did not then--and does not now--have adequate insurance to cover defective vests, as required by the Police Department.

Whiteley said his company submitted a bid for the 1,000 vests in August, offering the vests at $195 each, as opposed to Point Blank’s winning bid of $225 a vest.

While the Police Department’s contract proposal required vests manufactured to its specifications, Whiteley said his company was never asked to furnish a sample for field testing. Instead, he told the council, he left the Police Department a protective vest “that showed the quality of construction” such as stitching and fabric, but was never intended to substitute for the sample required in the contract proposal.

“They never asked us for a sample, although the proposal said one would have to be furnished upon demand. They never made the demand,” Whiteley said in an interview after the council’s unanimous vote.

Matthews said he was upset because Point Blank didn’t meet the bid requirement mandating that manufacturers have $10 million in liability insurance.

“I don’t understand how you can win a contract without meeting the minimum bid requirements,” Matthews said in an interview. “Anywhere else, you’d get tossed out the door.”

Guaderrama, the deputy police chief, said Point Blank was the third lowest bidder out of eight received.

But he said the lower bids “were not considered sufficient in the area of flexibility and comfort.”

The Police Department bought 200 Point Blank vests in May and found that officers were “100% positive” about them. In the past, officers had complained about protective vests being bulky, hot and generally uncomfortable, he said.

On top of that, Guaderrama said, the Point Blank vests were field-tested by five officers for two weeks. Again the results were positive, he said.

Both Guaderrama and Assistant City Manager John Lockwood told the council that, given such favorable response, it was decided to give Point Blank more time to meet the $10-million insurance requirement.

The company’s liability insurance, according to Lockwood, had expired at the time bids were opened. Since then, Lockwood said, Point Blank has increased its insurance to $6 million and has promised the city to increase it to $10 million in about two weeks.

The insurance is necessary to protect the city from injury to an officer as a result of a defective vest, Lockwood said.