County receives funding for bulletproof vests

U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) has announced that Clay County will receive federal grants totaling $1,832 from the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) for the purchase of seven bulletproof vests.�

Vermillion will receive a federal grant of $332 for the purchase of one bulletproof vest, while the Clay County Department will receive $1,500 for six vests. South Dakota as a whole was awarded $67,069 in federal grants for a total of 206 bulletproof vests.

"Life-saving body armor can be very expensive for many small and rural communities in South Dakota with extremely limited resources," said Johnson. "This funding gives those communities the necessary resources to best equip their local law enforcement."

The funding comes from the OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) as part of the 2006 Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program. This program has funded a total of $28.9 million for 213,484 bul-letproof vests for lawenforcement officers nationwide.�

DOJ estimates that officers who don't wear bullet-proof vests on the job are 14 times more likely to be killed than officers who are equipped with them.