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Curvy court officers need to get something off their chests!
A new state rule requires all court officers to wear bullet-proof vests — but the boob-squishing safety gear has no contoured room for breasts, making it painful and irritating for women, female officers say.
“They measured us, they got our breast sizes, and then they give us vests designed for flat boobs!” one female court officer fumed.
The state Office of Court Administration has racked up so many complaints that the agency could be forced to temporarily suspend the bulletproof-vest mandate it issued in March, sources say.
The pressing problem began after the agency opted to buy “unisex” or “unstructured” bulletproof vests instead of more expensive ones with fitted room for breasts, insiders say.
“They are man vests — that is why they don’t fit women,’’ a male court officer noted. “They make female vests that are contoured, but they cost more, so they issued everyone men’s vests.”
The source added that even men with less-than-flat chests are feeling the squeeze. “I joke that it hurts my man boobs, so I don’t wear it,” he said.
OCA downplayed the problem, saying it’s the first time the agency has issued the vests to court officers, so hiccups are bound to arise.
Agency spokesman David Bookstaver said OCA simply wants officers to be safe.
“The big picture here is that the OCA . . . felt it was crucial to provide each court officer with bulletproof vests that give the officers the maximum safety and security while they perform their duties,” he said.
OCA is currently addressing the problem with the Florida-based manufacturer Safariland Group, Bookstaver added.
But some court officers are still angry. “I feel crushed in this — I can’t breathe!” a second female officer said.
“If I get shot in the leg, I swear I’m going to take this vest off and use it to beat the crap out of the guy who shot me,” she said.
While Bookstaver refused to say how many female vests were purchased or how many taxpayer dollars were spent on them, one court-officers union said a total of 2,500 vests were purchased at about $600 a pop.
That would amount to a total cost of $1.5 million.
Roughly 400 of the city’s female court officers are currently being squeezed into the ill-fitting vests, said Dennis Quirk, president of the union, the New York State Court Officers Association.
Several more hundred officers who work in state Supreme Court are also feeling the squeeze, said Richard Krulish, the president of the Supreme Court Officers Association.
Quirk said the manufacturer plans to refit or replace all ill-fitting vests free of charge.
A Safariland spokeswoman, Hope Bianchi Sjursen, said the firm gave OCA what it ordered. She was unable to provide the cost difference between structured and unstructured vests.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano.