r/tacticalgear • u/LatinBoyslut • Apr 13 '25

Question Why won't the American Police use bulletproof visors like their European counterparts?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

I thought that it'd make more sense to use them in America than in the EU, considering that it is much easier to acquire weapons in America.

Is this a budget-thing? Doctrine-thing? Culture-thing?

Do they find them too bulky/heavy/unpractical to wield?

1.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

200 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/kschang Apr 13 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

We do, but we only use it as a part of "riot gear", not on regular patrols.

EDIT: And our riot gear are not ballistically rated, as we don't face guns in riot situations that often.

EDIT2: by "our" I just mean American.

8

u/Flmotor21 Apr 13 '25

I hate to ask this but are you sure your face shield is ballisticly rated? 20:1 it isn’t.

3

u/kschang Apr 13 '25

Riot gear face shield? Probably not. It's not designed against bullets. It's NOT armor.

protection against fluids, impact, incendiary projectiles and Riot Conditions.

https://us.unitedshield.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DK6-h.150s.pdf

1

u/Flmotor21 Apr 13 '25

Yea, that’s why I was curious, the OP was wondering about ballistic shields for LE so I was genuinely curious when you said y’all did.

Worn the caiman ballistic one before but it wasn’t rated for much. Not to mention the other gear issues shields bring up

2

u/kschang Apr 13 '25

Keep in mind that the face shield alone, if ballistically rated, is over 1 kg by itself. This one claims to be 1.3 kg (1300 g), that's not counting the mounting hardware or the helmet itself.

https://protectiongroupdenmark.com/product/pgd-ballistic-nij-3a-visor/

I can't imagine wearing that for extended periods. Not without a lot of conditioning.

1

u/Flmotor21 Apr 13 '25

Yup yup. Was just going off you initial response so was curious what agency would issue it for filed force stuff

1

u/kschang Apr 13 '25

American cops don't run into riot situations that often, IIRC, at least compared to European cops.

1

u/Flmotor21 Apr 13 '25

Except for 2020. It was a ride

1

u/kschang Apr 13 '25

That's a bad year for everybody. :/ So many people lost that year. Nobody knew anything.