Bullets Can't Make It Past Protective Layer Applied To Glass
WATKINS, Colo. (CBS4)- A small group of law enforcement agents, government officials and school security staff from around Colorado traveled to Watkins on Thursday to get a closer look at bullet-resistant technology. It's called TruArmor – a high-tech laminate applied to glass that creates a one-way protective layer to stop bullets from going through.
During the demonstration, numerous bullets were fired into a window protected with TruArmor and none of them penetrated the glass. Three men even tried breaking the cracked window with a steel baseball bat, but the bat bent.
"If you look at the glass, it's broken," explained Dave Trudeau, owner of the Clear Armor company. "If you're hitting it and my laminate is behind it, it's not going anywhere."
Trudeau and local consultants for the product say it's a sure-fire way to protect what's important.
"Let's say I'm a cop in a school and we're in a lockdown in a library," Amir Stephen, a Clear Armor consultant told CBS4's Kelly Werthmann. "A suspect comes in and starts shooting at the glass. His rounds aren't getting to me or the kids in that library, but my rounds can get to him."
It's the kind of protection Regis Jesuit High School's director of security wants for students.
"That's our number one goal," Imtiaz Stephan said. "We want them to get home safe. This is an amazing product."
The cost to install TruArmor depends on the size of the school, but the price tag is into the tens of thousands of dollars.
"I don't know what the cost of a human life is, but you can't put a value on something like that," Amir said.
All the more reason why Imtiaz believes the armor he saw in action is invaluable.
"We want to protect people. We're looking at this product," the Regis High security director said. "I think we're eventually going to go looking at how we can fund this to make it happen."
Security is one aspect of Clear Armor – the company also travels the country for education and training, such as first aid response for teachers and students. That layer, Trudeau told the group, is the most essential part of what they do.
"Remember," Trudeau added, "I hold the world patents on it. We make it, we install it. I don't sell it to anybody."
LINK: TruArmor