Name/Title
Sussex Police uniform fluorescent Hi- Vis vest c1990sEntry/Object ID
2486Description
Florescent yellow coloured nylon high visibility vest, with reflective vertical and horizontals banding and velcro front fastening. There are plastic coated blue and white coloured badges marked "Police", a smaller on over the left breast and a larger one on the rear. Marked inside on a label "Manufactured in England by Firefly High Visibility Clothing Ltd Tel. Batley (0924) 441941"Use
For police officers to wear over other items of uniform to allow them to be more visibleContext
By the 1980s the only officers in Sussex to be issued with high visibility jackets were those on the Traffic Department to enable them to be seen at the roadside, especially at night. Even then, this was a relatively new development with, their white caps being their only safety aid until the mid 1970s and the 1974 Safety at Work Act.
In the 1980s it became recognised that other officers would on occasion need high visibility (hi-viz) clothing and florescent overgarments such as this vest became available for officers to wear, normally at the scene of road traffic incidents. In the later 1990s vests were replaced with long sleeved garments, as regulations on high visibility clothing changed. Throughout this period the use of these garments increased within the Sussex Police, to include them often being mandatory at many public events and demonstrations, however they were still not worn at all times, with traffic officers still being the only ones issued with proper jackets as opposed to simpler overgarments. In 2000, officers stationed at Gatwick Airport were issued with weather proof hi-viz jackets because of the requirement to wear such clothing airside, previously they wore the overgarments on top of standard clothing and not long afterwards all Sussex uniformed officers were issued with similar three quarter length jackets. In 2006, all uniform officers within Sussex Police began to be issued with a shorter blouson high visibility jacket, although some officers, especially traffic ones, retained the longer style. In 2018, following complaints from officers that these garments were not warm enough, Sussex Police began issuing heavily quilted "Parka" style coats which were black in collar and not hi viz, but instead had removable reflective "Police" badges front and rear.
Nylon long sleeved overgarments are still used, mainly in the summer when it is too hot for the blouson jackets to be worn, or over over none hi viz outer wear.
Police hi-viz vests and over jackets are always marked as such with special badges that reflect the word "Police" when lights are shone on it to clearly identify the wearing at night. This particular example, without long sleeves probably dates to the 1990s.