Ballistic panels for evidence lockers

Protecting law enforcement personnel from accidental weapons discharge

While accidental weapons discharges in law enforcement facilities are rare, the incidents can be serious, sometimes resulting in serious injury or death. Weapons collected as evidence pose particular risk because officers might not be as familiar with the operation of evidentiary weapons as they are with weapons they were trained on. While following proper handling protocol during evidence collection goes a long way toward ensuring everyone’s safety at the crime scene and throughout the chain of custody, a major Arizona law enforcement agency wanted to take additional precautions.

To guard against accidental injury, the agency worked with their local Spacesaver

representative and Spacesaver’s engineering team to design pass-through lockers with ballistic protection. All of Spacesaver’s pass-through evidence lockers are designed with lockable doors on the front for evidence deposit, as well as doors on the back that open into the evidence processing area. The agency ordered two evidence lockers with ballistic panels securely attached to the back doors to prevent accidental weapons discharge from injuring personnel working on the other side of the wall.

In addition to the ballistic panels, “lock out” features on the lockers prevent the front and back doors from opening at the same time, which in turn prevents unlawful entry into the work area.