Episode Description - My guest today is Ed Hinchey, a retired Sgt. with the Forest Hills Pennsylvania Police Department. Ed is the survivor of a violent police shooting who was saved by his soft body armor. After retirement Ed became the Director of the Safariland Saves Program. In his capacity as Saves Director, Ed’s job is working with officers who have been shot in the line of duty and saved by their armor. As a result, Ed has likely interacted with more officers shot in the line of duty than anyone in the world. In this interview, Ed discusses witnessing his partner being shot, the first failure of soft body armor by a round it was designed to stop, surviving his own shooting, the aftermath of a shooting, the effects on the officer and their family, as well as the NIJ armor standards past and present. Ed also discusses how to best prepare officers for shootings and how to help them after a shooting occurs.

Timestamps

1:30 – Ed’s Background

2:06 – 6/23/03 - The Edward Limbacher Shooting

4:55 – The NIJ Armor Standards and How They Have Changed

7:05 – Armor Failure – The Zylon Recall and The Old NIJ Standards

11:00 – Frustrations with the Armor Industry

13:23 – The Chronology of Ed’s Shooting 

20:50 – His Injuries 

26:30 – Arrival at the Hospital & Initial Treatment

33:00 – Surgery & Recovery

38:10 – Effects on the Family

45:30 – Community Reaction & News Media

51:14 – Retirement from Law Enforcement 

57:04 – Starting His Second Career with Safariland

1:02:10 – Keys to Surviving a Shooting

1:07:15 – Going Beyond the Academy

1:20:45 - Why Armor Saves Lives

1:25:39 – Behind the Armor – Training Armor

1:30:17 – Mindset and Survival

1:33:14 - Social Media and Survivors

Books Recommended

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – ISBN 048629823X

The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings by Theodore Roosevelt - ISBN13: 9780765306715

Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership: Executive Lessons from the Bully Pulpit by James Strock – ISBN 0761515399

Sites Recommended

NIJ Armor Standards - https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/body-armor-performance-standards

Safariland Saves - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIM58xG6QM4flerbP6IU9qgXf7VJ5ZgJ7 

https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force

Contact Info

Ed Hinchey

Save #941

Safariland Saves Program

ed.hinchey@safariland.com