Bruceville-Eddy Police adds ballistic glass in its patrol vehicles to enhance protection
Bruceville-Eddy, Texas (KWTX) - Safety is a law enforcement officer’s top priority and that’s why the Bruceville-Eddy Police Department partnered with Dana Safety Supply to install ballistic glass in its patrol vehicles.
Chief Michael Dorsey said the ballistic glass is a one-way design, it stops bullets from coming in and allows bullets to go out.
The glass is in the patrol units’ front windshield and the passenger and driver’s front windows.
The ballistic glass doesn’t look different from a standard glass windshield, which makes it hard to spot.
Chief Dorsey said now a days, this type of protection is needed in every law enforcement agency’s vehicle.
“Officers are targets and there are people that want to hurt law enforcement and have bad intentions,” said Dorsey.
Unfortunately, this was the reality for the late Trooper Chad Walker.
In March of 2021, he spotted a disabled vehicle stopped on the shoulder of the road in Mexia.
As he pulled up behind the vehicle, the car’s driver exited and fired a handgun through the windshield of Walker’s patrol vehicle.
Immediately following his death, a group called Mutual Assistance Group Inc. began efforts to replace the windshields on all DPS patrol vehicles with new, bullet resistant glass.
Vice President of the organization, John Liscano, said seeing more agencies taking the cautious route can save an officer’s life.
“Having that extra layer of protection is just one more thing to keep those guys safe because times aren’t getting easier or better for our law enforcement,” said Liscano.
Liscano, said an officer being behind the windshield is a vulnerable spot and adds that ballistic glass could have saved Trooper Walker’s life.
“Those risks are always going to be there. You don’t know who or what you’re dealing with on the other end of that call, or on the other end of what you’re walking up on. So, having that there would’ve been crucial that night, that day. "
Chief Dorsey says five out of seven of their patrol vehicles have a ballistic glass set, each costing $7,500.
MAG said it raised and donated $126,000 to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, Groesbeck Police Department and Mexia PD for new bullet resistant windshields.
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