Should your jacket be black or green?

[DrParasite]

My agency recently switched jackets from black uniform jackets (like this http://www.spiewak.com/uniform/product/style/S310/9/) with limited reflective striping to a slightly brighter coat (http://www.galls.com/google/style.html?assort=general_catalog&style=JA011)

two comments have generally been made: the coat is REALLY REALLY bright, and you need sunglasses to look at it directly, and it's a great coat to have on the highway for MVC.

the other comment is that it is too bright, and people don't want to wear it on stabbings or shootings at night, because it makes you a target, and can draw unwanted attention to yourself, esp if the attacker comes back to finish the job.

So simple question, do you want a dark jacket with limited reflectivity, or a bright extremely visible jacket? of course both would need to have the appropriate patches and other identification.

 

[JPINFV]

Yes... because the person with the gun is going to go and shoot the person on scene that doesn't have a fire arm. If you're on scene of a stabbing or shooting without police then you're doing something wrong.

Given the choice, bright jacket, less paranoia.

 

[MedicSqrl]

I wear the bright yellow jacket with reflective stripping and I like it. Others have commented about being visually offended, but they can just not look at it. It does come in handy though in the dark, because it almost glows. Plus you can get them reversible anyways if you get tired of blinding people. Although I don't like it on the black side because all the good pockets are on the blinding side.

 

[kamrynd]

Our Department just wears dark blue jackets over uniform shirt

 

[Jon]

I'm issued one of these coats from my one job. In theory, it's reversible to black. It's bright. It's visible. And I look like a HUGE road cone.

It isn't that bad, and it actually seems to be a common trend county-wide to issue providers similar coats.

 

[FLEMTP]

Why not get the best of both worlds.. get a dark color uniform jacket..and issue the bright yellow DOT traffic safety vests to wear over them on highway/roadway crashes. It is our dept SOP we have to wear our safety vests on any call that takes us into the roadway.. crash or not.

 

[Hal9000]

(Green)

I dress up like a ninja so that shooters can't target me. I also only carry supertactical black Statpacks IV modules. Can't give myself away. This little graphic represents how I look from the shoulders up:

h34r:

 

[MedicSqrl]

Gotta love those statpacks even though they are wicked expensive. I own 2 and love them.

 

[doctorfodder]

Its like having construction crews change from all white shirts that they used to wear on highway/street front jobs to day glow shirts.

Visibility is a safety issue.

 

[medicdan]

Take a look at this presentation about the importance of hi-viz vests. I think I originally saw this ppt here, but anyway the author has cleared to be shared.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=...TAtMWQyMy00NjZkLTkzMmItNWMwMDNiM2M4ZmIy&hl=en

 

[Jeffrey_169]

Visibility is unquestionably and indubitably paramount in our line of work.

 

[EMSLaw]

It could also be related to DOT's recent regulation change requiring reflective clothing on all government-funded roads.

 

[18G]

Ive seen departments issue jackets that meet the DOT requirements for working along the roadway. If your jacket is already lime green, no need for a vest. Personally, I don't like wearing a lime green coat all the time..lol... so I prefer a normal looking coat and just put the vest over it.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Hey, when it comes to my life.....I really dont care how I look.

Our jackets are that same blinding "lime" green with the white reflective stripes and EMS in 8 inch block letters on the back. We are actually allowed to where any jacket/sweatshirt issued by the service as long as we wear the vest on the highway. I have a blue fleece, blue windbreaker with reflctive emblems, the day-glo jacket and it's zip out fleece liner. (I wear this the most and put the gore-tex shell on when we are on roads. It is navy with our emblem on the front and has lime/silver striping. Too bad it does not comply with the required number of square inches required by DOT anymore.)

 

[EMT]

Of course a bright extremely visible jacket with DOT reflective striping. Why would you not want to be seen? Besides, DOT's lime green EMT jackets are not too bad looking.

 

[enjoynz]

Just to give you a sample of our uniform.
This photo has all three services in it (Fire and ambulance are seperate in New Zealand). As you can see they are easy to tell apart.

http://www.nzpaimages.co.nz/previews//200702/24258_4
The bright yellow of the ambulance high-vis jacket is great at MVA's.

If you are at a call out to do with weapons, then our normal uniform jackets are medium to dark green (Same colour as the bags they are carrying).
Nothing like the blue uniform of the police officer shown. So the two dept's do not get mistaken, should that be the case.

The Fire dept dress uniform is blue, which looks very much the same as the police, but of course they wear the gear, as shown, to their call outs.

Cheers Enjoynz

 

[guardian528]

we have both, and are required to wear hi-viz when on a call on a roadway

 

[JCampbell]

I saw a jacket I really like in a local uniform store. It was black but covered in tiny reflective dots that were almost invisible until light was shown on it, then the entire jacket lit up.

 

[AnthonyM83]

The person who stands out might be a better target, but I believe OVERALL the person who looks OBVIOUSLY like EMS personnel or FIRE department is less likely to be targeted, though. Exceptions are cases with deranged individuals and someone who just wants to kill anyone. I don't think we have good stats for this, though.

More likely it's going to come down to non-shooting acts of violence examples. Crowds seem less likely to get in the FD's way than the PD's way on-scenes of violent crimes. That's in my experience (and chaotic scenes are very common here).

 

[Jeffrey_169]

The person who stands out might be a better target, but I believe OVERALL the person who looks OBVIOUSLY like EMS personnel or FIRE department is less likely to be targeted, though. Exceptions are cases with deranged individuals and someone who just wants to kill anyone. I don't think we have good stats for this, though.

More likely it's going to come down to non-shooting acts of violence examples. Crowds seem less likely to get in the FD's way than the PD's way on-scenes of violent crimes. That's in my experience (and chaotic scenes are very common here).

You really have a good point here. On a MVC scene visibility is an obvious must, however in a time such as we are living, i.e. terrorism and mass incidents of violence, there are times when perhaps lower visibility would be the preferred choice.

Good point here.