$7M awarded to Hardwire, LLC for law enforcement’s protection gear
DELMARVA – The Department of Justice has awarded Hardwire, LLC in Pocomoke $7 million to protect law enforcement.
The funding is a part of the Rifle Resistant Steel Plate and Spall Protection Contract for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. With crime on the rise officials think it’s important that law enforcement has the tools they need to stay protected. The $7 million award will do just that by creating torso plates.
“You have to be hyper-vigilant in today’s world so they have to be prepared, you know for anything, we live in a fast and fluid world where anything can happen,” says Sheriff Matt Crisafulli of Worcester County.
Hardwire, LLC has just the right armor to do the job.
“Extremely thin, very very comfortable well curved to fit the agent’s bodies and we’ll be making front plates, back plates and side plates it will be 100% coverage on the agents,” Hardwire CEO, George Tunis.
To be awarded this funding Hardwire went through quite the process. This happened after the FBI put out a request looking for steel body armor to stop difficult conflicts, ranging from average criminals to drug cartels.
“They held a competition, there were a number of vendors that competed for that and we had the best plate by a long shot…We’re always thrilled to have the difficult customers and the FBI is a very particular very tough customer. they’re testing is just incredibly extensive and they’re very high profile customers we’re always excited to see our customer base grow,” says Tunis.
Sheriff Matt Crisafulli says this award couldn’t have been earned at a better time.
“It’s critically important because as you see nationally there’s a lot of incidents that take place and these types of incidents can occur anywhere at any time,” says Sheriff Matt Crisafulli.
George Tunis, Hardwire CEO says the equipment does more than just keep law enforcement safe.
“We also liked to make sure the agents feel safer because it slows them down a little bit…they tend to keep their weapon in their holster longer which is safer for people on both sides of the gun,” says Tunis.
This contract will be in effect for the next 5 years. But, Hardwire says this is only the beginning of steel technology. The next steps are to get this technology on tanks and large armored vehicles to keep everyone safe on the move. The CEO also says he’s honored that they were selected to provide such life-saving protection. It will be rolled out to the FBI in the next 30 days.
