After speaking with Harding University alumni working in area law enforcement agencies that couldn't afford to equip them with body armor, a Harding professor and former CIA agent was motivated to set up a GoFundMe account and raise money for their protection.

The Daily Citizen (http://bit.ly/2cCRZjp ) reports that criminal justice professor Sam Jeffrey raised a total of $7,500 to purchase 13 sets of Level IV body armor for officers in the White County Sheriff's Office, Searcy Police Department and Conway Police Department.

Level IV body armor provides the highest level of protection as determined by the National Institute of Justice, the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.

"As a criminal justice professor, I kind of stay up on the needs of local law enforcement, and the criminal justice program here at Harding just has some really good ties with the White County Sheriff's Office and the Searcy Police Department," Jeffrey said. "In the case of the White County sheriff, one our graduates went to work there. He's a deputy there now. He was the first student that I taught who graduated from the criminal justice program. I called him and I knew that he didn't have it. And so, my initial goal was to get (body armor for) him and another student who graduated and joined the Conway Police Department who was in a similar situation.

"I wanted to get my guys covered, and then, I think there was just a lot of people out there who wanted to show their support for law enforcement but didn't know exactly how, and when they saw that opportunity, they kind of came out of the woodwork and we were able to raise a good bit of money."

Eight sets of body armor went to the White County Sheriff's Office, four to the Searcy Police Department and one to the Conway Police Department.

According to Jeffrey, many law enforcement departments lack the funds to provide body armor, and if they do, it's often Level II or Level III, which is heavier, bulky and less effective than Level IV armor.

"What we got is Level IV, which will stop a rifle round, and so it will stop not only pistols but rifles," Jeffrey said. "The stuff we got is ceramic plates and it's a lot lighter than some Level II and Level III systems, so even though it provides more protection, it weighs less."

Jeffrey, who was living in north Virginia and working for the CIA at the time of the Dallas police shooting, said he believes attacks this summer on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge have "catalyzed people."

"(People) are extremely thankful for what law enforcement does on a daily basis, and I think what was beautiful about the way this worked out, from my perspective, is that I realized people were looking for a way to show their support to law enforcement, but they just didn't know how," he said.

Harding's criminal justice program now is seeking to expand the effort to provide much needed protection for area law enforcement officers and is partnering with the Harding University Veterans Association to organize fundraisers "because there are so many people out there in the local jurisdictions in Arkansas that are in the same situation and they're putting their lives on the line for us every day and we ought to be doing everything we can to support them," Jeffrey said.

"But certain jurisdictions just don't have the budget for that, and that's a completely understandable thing, but it's no less tragic when someone dies if they lack the proper gear. The Harding Criminal Justice program stands lock step with local law enforcement. We want to support them in any way that we can."

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Information from: The Daily Citizen, http://www.thedailycitizen.com/

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