American automaker company Ford will soon start providing doors on its Police Interceptor sedans and SUVs as the first to meet the Justice Department's standard. The doors will have a ballistic protection that can halt powerful and assault rifles.
According to Fox News, although Ford has offered factory-installed ballistic panels on its police car door since 2008, the previous versions protected only against handgun fire and non-armor piercing bullets. Previous Ford police cars only offered level III protection according to the Justice Department's standard. Only 5 percent to 10 percent of Ford police cars offers an optional ballistic protection for about $1,500 per door.
The police cars doors, equivalent of the high-standard SWAT team vest, are designed to stop a .30-caliber bullet shot from a high-powered rifle like an AK-47. That was the Justice Department's standards for a level IV protection. Technically each door comprised two layers of protection, The outside layer is made from ceramic tiles and the inner layer from Kevlar's material, a synthetic fiber of high strength to stop bullet strikes.
For some places, that kind of protection is an absolute necessity and the police departments have been seeking such improvements. "Officers, globally, told us they needed protection from armor-piercing ammunition, and we added ballistic protection to an already great product," said the chief engineer for Ford's police car lineup, Arie Groenveld, as quoted by USAToday. The ballistic protection on police car doors is also highly important because police typically use their car doors as shield to cover them during high-risk traffic stops.
Ford officials revealed that it took them more than a year to accomplish the remarkable bulletproofing upgrade on police cars doors. The carmaker tested the doors with more than 100,000 slams with machines to make sure that the door hinges will hold up with the extra weight imposed by the protection layers. The Ford police car doors were then tested by the Michigan State Police officers by shooting them up with powerful rifles.
The price for new upgraded police cars doors has not been revealed but Ford plans to start receiving order from police departments next week. In addition to the new armor-piercing doors, Ford will still continue to offer non-armor piercing doors for departments with different needs, as noted by the Detroit Free Press.
After passing the ballistic tests, Ford will start providing armor-piercing protection doors for police cars. It was the first police car door type to pass the Justice Department's level IV protection standard. Police departments will be able to make orders starting next week.
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