By Luke Hannon
More than 1,000 NSW police officers have told their association they
have sustained injuries from wearing standard-issue accoutrement belts.
Armed with that information, the Police Association of NSW moved to
set up and lead a project team – which formed in May 2003 – to examine
alternative belts and appointments. Led by PANSW executive member,
Luke Hannon, the team meets as and when necessary.
Stage 1
In June 2004, a prototype known as the Shape Shifter Gel Belt was
issued to 80 police officers for a three-month trial. Of those officers,
65 carried injuries, while the other 15, who were uninjured, acted
as a control group.
The 80 trial participants came from different uniform operational
sections all over NSW, including Mounted, Highway Patrol, Trail Bikes,
Transit, General Duties, Police FSG and Taskforce Gain.
From a participants’ approval rating of about 90 per cent, a decision
was taken to continue with the trial of the Gel Belt. But officers
had identified some deficiencies in the belt as well.
This information was collated; and, after consultation with Uniform
Services and the manufacturer, a new belt was designed for production.
Stage 2
After this new Gel Belt was produced, a further trial with the selected
officers was expected to begin by January and finish by March, 2005.
Stage 3
Stages 2 and 3 of the trial will run simultaneously. In stage 3,
officers will wear a harness/vest that clips onto the belt. This will
distribute some of the belt’s weight onto their shoulders.
A limited number of metropolitan police officers has been selected
for this stage of the trial. Further details on this harness/vest
will be released after stage 2 of the trial gets underway.
Trial participants will submit evaluation sheets each month for
three months. The project team will review the results of that information
after it has been collated.
- For related articles, see Overloaded: how the New South Wales
police accoutrement belt plagues it wearers (Police Journal,
February 2004), Accoutrement belt trial to commence (Police Journal,
June 2004), NSW accoutrement belt trial underway (Police Journal,
October 2004) and Shortcomings revealed in NSW accoutrement belt
trial (Police Journal, December 2004.
