This report describes the intent, features, and performance of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Follow-up Inspection and Testing (FIT) program administered by NIJ's Compliance Testing Program (CTP) for body armor.
Prior to the installment of the FIT program, the CTP only tested pre-production design samples of body armor models, which assumed that the pre-production design would be reliably reproduced in the armor's manufacturing process. The FIT program randomly tests body-armor samples that have been produced in the manufacturing process to ensure that the armor sent to criminal justice agencies complies with the design approved in pre-production testing. Since the first FIT inspection was performed in September 2010 through September 2017, 312 FIT inspections have been conducted at various armor manufacturing locations, involving 898 armor models. The vast majority of body-armor products sampled in testing passed inspection with no issues. When issues of non-compliance occur, the manufacturer works with CTP staff to resolve as many of the identified issues as possible. The result of the FIT testing is increased confidence that the body armor worn in the field complies with the CTP testing standards.