WASHINGTON — No body armor, no cash.
That’s what the Justice Department is saying.
USA Today reports that the Justice Department is threatening to withhold millions of federal dollars from local police departments that don’t require uniformed officers to wear body armor.
The threats come in wake of a spike in fatal shootings of cops. Body armor is not required at 41 percent of the nation’s police departments, USA Today reports.
“What struck us is the number of agencies that don’t have a mandatory policy … a potential huge vulnerability,” Jim Burch, acting director of the department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, told USA Today. “If we’re investing federal dollars, we should require agencies to have policies.”