Shield & Riot Gear Storage for Jail and Police

The current political and social climate has caused an increase in protests and large gatherings in many cities around the country. More police departments are preparing for these events by ensuring they have adequate riot gear in the event that crowds turn violent. At the same time, correctional facilities also have to be prepared in case of a riot or violent situation.

While police departments rarely need to use riot gear such as shields, helmets, and full body armor, this gear still needs to be stored somewhere — and it’s usually less than efficient to store. Sure, shields and bulky body armor are a pain to find space for, but when you need them, you want to be sure that they’re secure, organized, easy to issue, and ready for use.

There are a few ways to store riot gear — specifically shields — that will allow you to save space while keeping gear secure and accounted for. At one jail, we installed 4-post shelving with full height bin dividers to store one shield in each section, as shown below. This system keeps shields upright and allows for easy visual inventory, and can also be used to store helmets and body armor.

Similarly, a rail system with dividers can be used to divide a 4-post shelving unit into individual slots for each shield. To save even more space, shelves can be placed onto a high density mobile storage system. The entire mobile system can then be locked using PIN code access or badge-swipe access if desired. All of these options utilize our patented universal shelf, which means that all accessories can be changed or removed if the shelf is ever used for another purpose.

Another method for storing riot gear is to use large gear lockers, which allow for ventilation while keeping gear secured.