Business Draws Fire for Selling Bulletproof Vests in High-Crime Neighborhood

The high-crime neighborhoods of Boston have become a booming marketplace for a businessman selling an unusual consumer product: bulletproof vests.

Some community activists criticize the enterprise, saying that it feeds off the fears of residents. But the owner of the business contends that he is performing a public service.

Bob Glikin, owner of Body Armor of New England, started his business several months ago, marketing bulletproof vests in the city’s Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester sections. He has particularly sought out people who work in liquor stores, drugstores and other businesses that could be prone to armed robberies.

Glikin said when he first approached potential customers, “we found we couldn’t get the products fast enough to them. The only sales pitch I needed was to show up with the product.”

Georgette Watson, executive director of the Governor’s Alliance Against Drugs, criticized Glikin for whipping up hysteria and “making money off of a community’s misery.”

Instead of working to solve problems such as drugs and gang shootings, people in the community will just “throw up their hands and get bulletproof vests,” she said.

Glikin defended his business.

“If there were no car accidents, there would be no seat-belt sales either,” he said. “I sell people a product that will save their life. How can you object to that?”

One customer was a liquor store owner who has been robbed by armed gunmen several times. The store owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he has been shot at more than once but never wounded.

“I just want an extra bit of protection,” he said.

M&S; Police Supply Inc. in Somerville also sells bulletproof vests, but the firm has a policy to provide them only to law enforcement workers or other emergency personnel whose jobs take them to high-crime areas.

The store adopted the policy “so the vests don’t get in the wrong hands,” co-owner Stephen Bianchi said. “If it gets in the hands of gang members or criminals, they might get a little bolder. It kind of evens out the odds if police are wearing vests and criminals are wearing vests.”

Glikin said he tries to make sure that customers want vests for legitimate reasons, and he has turned down suspicious sales.

The vest he sells is actually more like a T-shirt that has bullet-resistant panels inserted in pockets. Depending on the size of the customer, the price ranges from $250 to $350, although women’s vests may be more expensive because they need to be specially designed.

Glikin said he can also make available bullet-resistant baseball caps, raincoats and umbrellas.