{"id":16128,"date":"2016-03-11T09:02:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T17:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/ford-makes-police-car-doors-that-stop-armor-piercing-bullets\/"},"modified":"2016-03-11T09:02:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T17:02:07","slug":"ford-makes-police-car-doors-that-stop-armor-piercing-bullets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/ford-makes-police-car-doors-that-stop-armor-piercing-bullets\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford makes police car doors that stop armor-piercing bullets"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014<\/strong> It\u2019s a first for police cars: Doors that can protect against armor-piercing bullets.<\/p>\n

Ford will soon be offering the doors on its Police Interceptor sedans and SUVs. They\u2019ll be the first in the U.S. to meet the Justice Department\u2019s highest standard for body armor, the equivalent of a SWAT vest.<\/p>\n

The doors are designed to stop a .30-caliber bullet shot from a high-powered rifle like an AK-47. That\u2019s more powerful ammunition than many soldiers carry.<\/p>\n

Ford has offered factory-installed ballistic panels on its police car doors since 2008. But previous versions protected against handgun fire and non-armor piercing bullets. Between 5 percent and 10 percent of Ford police vehicles have the optional ballistic protection, which costs around $1,500 per door.<\/p>\n

But Randy Freiburger, a Ford engineer who works with police customers, said the company was getting frequent requests for better protection, particularly from police in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. So engineers starting working on upgraded panels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some places outside the U.S., they face the armor-piercing threat on a daily basis,\u201d Freiburger said. \u201cThis is the price of entry for those markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford was also facing pressure from its rivals. Dodge began offering non-armor piercing protection on police versions of the Charger in 2012. Ford controlled 60 percent of the U.S. police vehicle market in 2015.<\/p>\n

Other automakers, including Land Rover and Audi, make vehicles from high-strength steel that can protect against armor-piercing bullets. But the cost would likely be out of reach for most police departments. The armored Range Rover Sentinel, which isn\u2019t sold in the U.S., starts at $569,000. A Ford Police Interceptor SUV \u2014 which is based on an Explorer \u2014 starts around $30,000.<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s ballistic panels \u2014 which cover most of the door \u2014 have two layers. The outside is made from ballistic-grade ceramic tile. When a bullet hits the tile, it disperses the energy and starts to break the bullet into pieces. The inner layer is made from aramid fiber, which is the same material used for Kevlar. The fiber catches the shrapnel from the bullet.<\/p>\n

If bullets strike twice in the same spot, which is rare, the panels will still offer some protection, Ford says.<\/p>\n

Freiburger said increasing the ballistic protection was an engineering challenge. The composition of the ceramic tile and the interior fiber had to be changed. The doors also weigh more, so engineers had to make sure that the hinges would hold them.<\/p>\n

Ford will continue offering both non-armor piercing and armor-piercing doors for departments with different needs. Pricing for the upgraded protection hasn\u2019t been announced.<\/p>\n

The doors aren\u2019t available to the public. In fact, they\u2019re destroyed when police cars are scrapped so they can\u2019t get into criminals\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n

Freiburger said the car windows do not have ballistic protection because it significantly increases the weight of the glass. Bulletproof glass could also make it more difficult to get injured people out of a patrol car.<\/p>\n

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said police are frequently targeted when they\u2019re in their cars, so they will likely welcome the more advanced protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny kind of protection that can be added into the vehicles that officers are driving in is a great idea,\u201d Johnson said.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 It\u2019s a first for police cars: Doors that can protect against armor-piercing bullets. Ford will soon be offering the doors on its Police Interceptor sedans and SUVs. They\u2019ll be the first in the U.S. to meet the Justice Department\u2019s highest standard for body armor, the equivalent of a SWAT vest. The doors are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":16129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16128"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}