Akron Police Captain Agostino Micozzi sat in front of Akron City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on May 6 and asked for immediate passage of legislation giving the department $60,000 to replace body armor for the SWAT team.
“In this case, we need to replace them all,” Micozzi told the committee. “We were notified by the Department of Homeland Security that the plates we had – some of those plates were found to be counterfeit. And so as a result of that, we need to replace them all…. In order to keep our high-risk operations operators safe, we need to replace these plates.”
Committee Chair and Ward 6 Council Member Brad McKitrick asked the captain if “time is of the essence” to pass the legislation. Yes, Micozzi said, and he asked council to suspend the rules so it could immediately approve the money the department was asking for to replace the defective body armor.
“We need to get this done quickly so they can be replaced,” McKitrick told his City Council colleagues a few hours later, “so we’re hoping for passage tonight.”
With no further discussion, CIty Council unanimously approved the hurried legislation to get the SWAT team replacement – and federally compliant – body armor.
While the council members approved the $60,000 legislation just hours after the Akron Police Department brought the issue to their attention, documents obtained by Signal Akron in a public records request indicate the APD was notified in early November that its SWAT team could be using compromised plates.
In a letter to the APD dated Nov. 6, exactly six months before the May 6 City Council meeting, the Department of Homeland Security indicated their agency, along with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, was “advising law enforcement agencies whose personnel may be utilizing Shot Stop Ballistics, LLC or Vallmar Studios, LLC body armor that the products may not meet the stated National Institute of Justice (NIJ) body armor performance standards.”
Documents show the APD purchased ShotStop equipment.
Signal Akron asked APD’s spokesperson, Captain Michael Miller, why it took until May for the department to seek to replace the body armor and if SWAT officers were wearing potentially faulty body armor well after it was known it could be unsafe.
In a statement, Miller said:
“As you might expect, many nuances and other variables impact how we approach a situation like this, including when we request the financial resources for equipment. I want to emphasize that our actions were not negligent or delayed in any way. Instead, we were conducting a thorough review of the matter and finding solutions, all the while maintaining our confidence in our officers’ (were adequately equipped) preparedness and ability to face any challenges. It’s important to remember that we are committed to officer safety and ensuring they have everything they need to serve the citizens of our community.”
Stow company, ShotStop ballistics, under investigation by DHS
Other records obtained by Signal Akron indicate the Akron Police Department purchased rifle-proof Level III-rated body armor, manufactured by a Stow-based company called ShotStop Ballistics, from a distributor called Protector Capital in December 2022.
According to a National Institute of Justice database, Vallmar Studios is registered at the address of a Stow home owned by Vall Iliev, according to Summit County Auditor records. Iliev is also the president and majority owner of ShotStop Ballistics, according to court records.
The November 2023 DHS letter said law enforcement agencies should “immediately discontinue the use of ballistic plates rated Level III or Level IV purchased from Shot Stop Ballistics, LLC after 2018” and that they were conducting an ongoing investigation.
While DHS wrote to the APD in November 2023 warning about ShotStop, it was already known in the tactical armor industry that the Stow company was facing public allegations that its equipment was potentially counterfeit, starting at least as early as October 18, when federal and state agents raided its headquarters. Crain’s Cleveland Business reported about that raid in March.
Just days after the raid, Reddit users were talking about the ShotStop allegations. Ten days after the October 18 raid, Protector Capital – the distributor the APD contracted with to purchase ShotStop body armor – posted on Facebook:
OFFICIAL PROTECTOR CAPITAL STATEMENT: The purpose of this communication is to inform you that as of October 18, 2023, Protector Capital, Inc. will not receive or process any orders for ballistic body armor from Shotstop. We learned that Shotstop is under federal investigation and federally served on this date to that effect. Given this situation, we have suspended all business related to Shotstop. Further, we will not communicate with you until more official information is available. Moreover, Protector Capital Inc. will not make any additional statements regarding this matter until such information is available. We appreciate your business and historical support.
When ShotStop dissolved in November, Reddit users talked about it, and the storyit was featured on a popular gun and tactical gear Youtube Channel. In March, Crain’s Cleveland Business published two deeply reported pieces about how ShotStop closed down amid a federal investigation and that the company was facing investor lawsuits. ShotStop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection May 4, according to court documents.
While other departments using ShotStop gear sought to replace their body armor months ago – police in Bismark, North Dakota, sought approval in February, for example – it is unclear why it took the APD six months to start replacing its body armor for the SWAT team.
