You see a police officer coming down the street. How would your impression of him or her change if he were approaching you with a military-style helmet … or instead, a baseball cap?
Tom Nardone (more commonly known as the head of the Detroit Mower Gang featured on Anthony Bourdain and many other outlets) has a couple of day jobs, and one of them is BulletSafe, making bulletproof vests. Their newest product is a bulletproof baseball cap and they hope to create a product that offers protection and helps officers with community policing.
“This cap gives increased protection without intimidation. It’s a discreet way for officers to be a little bit safer and aligns with community policing practices,” said Tom Nardone of BulletSafe.
But they weren’t sure if the thing was gonna catch on. They shared that the tooling and the equipment to make the item, which is designed to provide the same frontal protection as a full helmet, costs “tens of thousands of dollars” and they were at a disadvantage because the government funded the development and design of the helmet, whereas the ball cap requires new tools. To gauge interest in the new product, BulletSafe launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with a discount for the product to see if it would catch on.
And, boy it did catch. As of this writing, Nardone and Bulletsafe are approaching raising double the Kickstarter goal of $3,500 with 29 days still to go. The cap, through the Kickstarter, is available for $99 and will be delivered in December of 2015.
The bulletproof baseball cap, when available to the general public, is expected to sell for $129.
Would a baseball cap when used in intense situations be preferred to seeing police with military-like helmets? Would it be better for community policing? You be the judge, but if protection can still be offered without such an aggressive look and stance by officers, that seems to be a win for everyone.
“The sight of a police officer in a helmet is not really welcome in your neighborhood or mine,” said Nardone. “And they rarely have ratcheted down the violence.”