Rotary donates funds to Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office for bulletproof vests

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Rotary Club presented a check on Tuesday to the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office for the purchase of three new bullet proof vests.

“This is huge for us, because we don’t have the funding for every deputy to be provided with body armor,” said Col. John Ostrander of the Dougherty Sheriff’s Office. “The need is obvious and now, in modern times, it is more poignant than ever how great the need is.”

According to Rotary President Donna Gray, the club began its quest for new vests last spring. After the sniper attack in Dallas in which five officers were killed and seven other officers, along with two civilians, were injured, the club members felt that it was imperative that funding be provided to protect the lives of local sheriff’s deputies.

“We worked on a grant that didn’t come through, but we didn’t give up,” Gray said. “With the tragedies in Dallas and the police becoming targets, we went ahead and got the check written.

“We can’t do a lot, but we are certainly glad to have Col. John Ostrander and Col. Sabrina Lewis of the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office here today to accept this check in the amount of $1,728, which will purchase three of these life-vest kits.”

The average cost, according to Ostrander, is $576 per unit, each of which consists of the ballistic panels and three carriers — two concealable carriers and one external carrier.

“This has been a terrible year in law enforcement,” Ostrander said. “Right now, the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty doubles where we were at this time last year. It has outpaced the number of service men and women killed in Afghanistan last year, the entire year.

“Seventy police officers left for work in the morning and never made it home, and that’s just since the first of January. Twenty-three of those were killed by gunfire.”

According to officials, the protective vests help to protect officers from more than just bullets. The vests provide protection from edged weapons (knives) and provide protection in traffic accidents by preventing certain impact trauma.

“For us to have some assistance from the community like this, to be able to provide this (new vests) to our deputies is huge,” Ostrander said. “We cannot express how grateful we are that folks are willing to step up and help us out.

“We can’t do what we do without the support of the community and so often times our folks they go out day in and day out doing this job and they don’t necessarily get the thank you’s, but something like this lets them know that the community really has their back.”