MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy has announced another round of grants for Vermont police departments to get their officers bulletproof vests.
Leahy says the new $68,400 in grants will bring to more than $1 million the money that has come into Vermont for police protective gear since 1999.
Leahy is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the author of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program. He successfully pushed for its reauthorization earlier this year. As a result, over the next five years more than 200,000 officers across the country will receive protective vests.
Leahy says he frequently hears from Vermont law enforcement officers about the escalating presence of powerful weapons found at the scenes of drug investigations.
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