School safety agents in New York City will be outfitted with bullet-resistant vests as soon as next school year.
The New York Daily News reports that the Police Department will issue "a durable and lightweight ballistic resistant vest" to school safety agents — unarmed police department employees posted in city schools.
The decision was made after a pilot program in which 300 school safety agents across the city were given vests.
“The pilot program was very successful and aided in the safety of our school safety agents,” a police spokesman said, adding that the vests will be “mandatory for all members assigned to the NYPD School Safety Division to wear while performing their duties in uniform.”
Roughly 3,900 safety agents work in city schools.
The agents will have to wear the vests inside schools and outside schools as they monitor dismissal times.
It was not immediately clear if every agent will have a vest before September classes begin.
Close to 7,000 weapons of varying types were recovered by school safety agents during the last school year, officials said.
In the 2022-2023 school year, 15 firearms were recovered in city public schools, police data shows. Twenty-one firearms were recovered in the 2021-2022 school year, police say.
