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Holts Summit Fundraising for Higher-Level Police Equipment

The city of Holts Summit is attempting to raise $10,000 to purchase specialized equipment for the Holts Summit Police Department. They are working with Friends of Holts Summit, a nonprofit organization, to raise the money by reaching out directly to the community.

The new protective gear would include ballistic helmets and specialized body armor. The Friends of Holts Summit organization says these items are not normally included in the department’s budget. City Administrator Rick Hess was one of the first donors.

“That will allow us to equip every one of our nine officers and have a surplus so that when we hire another officer … there will be funds available to purchase it right away,” said Hess. “Or, god forbid, in case they have to actually use them and then we end up replacing one or two sets, we’ve got the funds available to do instant replacement.”

Hess said he could have obtained the money from the city but, by fundraising from citizens directly, he hopes citizens will feel they have more of a stake in protecting their police officers.

“I’m trying to bring everybody into kind of a closer orbit around one another so that everybody sees everybody, when they see the officers they think police or they don’t think necessarily somebody I want to avoid, that’s somebody that I want to interact with,” said Hess.

Hess said most police officers have what are called soft vests – meant to be worn underneath an officer’s uniform and protect from slower bullets while still allowing mobility. However, the vests are not designed to stop faster bullets. After seeing incidents involving police shootings across the country, Hess said they wanted to reevaluate along with the police department how they could best protect their officers.

“I do not want to have to go one of our officer’s homes, along with the Mayor and the Chief, and explain to them that their loved one is no longer coming home.”

The higher-level bulletproof vests will be the equivalent to the vests used by soldiers, according to Hess, with ceramic plates protecting vital areas on both the front and back of the torso.

The city has currently raised around $6,000 of their $10,000 goal.