Tens of thousands of city officers are sitting ducks thanks to outdated bulletproof vests that should have been replaced years ago, sources and experts tell The Post.
While the MTA and Port Authority replace the vests of their officers every five years, most NYPD cops are wearing body armor with expired warranties, sources said.
"The department is trying to stress safety more than anything now that these officers were assassinated,'' a police source said, referring to the double assassination of two cops in Brooklyn last month.
"Yet we're walking around with vests that are expired."
The vests' manufacturer acknowledges that its protective gear becomes less safe over time, as heat and moisture breaks down the synthetic fiber.
"They start to stop working — the fiber degrades,'' said a employee with maker Second Chance.
The company says the vests should be replaced when their five-year warranty expires.
In 2006, the city did spent $12 million to provide 18,000 new vests from Second Chance to give greater coverage to cops. They averaged $560 apiece.
The move came after a bullet went through the front and back panel of Brooklyn detective Dillon Stewart's vest in 2005, killing him.
But even those vests are already out-of-date, potentially putting cops in harm's way.
Cops can buy new vests to replace their outdated ones — but sources say the department makes them shell out $400 of their own money for the replacement.
Most cops don't know if their vests have expired — and won't until it could be too late, a source warned.
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"We'll never know how true that is until, God forbid, somebody is shot," the source said. "With everything going on, that's pretty low on their list of things to fix."
The NYPD declined comment.
Meanwhile, many Taxi and Limousine Commission officers also are wearing expired vests, some with warranties that lapsed 17 years ago.
"Heat, perspiration — it can cause the fibers to break down, and they won't perform if they should be hit by a projectile," said Bryant Halstead of the vests' maker, Point Blank.
The inspectors often do car stops in rough-and-tumble neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and Fordham in The Bronx, even though they don't have guns.
"They put us right on top of the places these horrific things have happened to police who are armed,'' said a TLC law-enforcement source, who blasted the agency on the safety issue.
"Older vests are paper thin, they feel like cardboard.
"How can they stop a bullet? I feel terrified. These people attacking law-enforcement are marksman, so odds are they'll hit the vest area. If the vest is old and worn down, we don't stand a chance."
A TLC spokesman said the agency will start requiring vests to be replaced every five years– and that the agency has been reviewing their uniformed services bureau from top-to-bottom.
"The safety of our inspectors is of paramount importance to the TLC, as is the safety of the riding public," said the spokesman, Allan Fromberg. "And we will continue this review to ensure that our protocols reflect this priority."
About 700 of the city's hospital cops, which guard facilities such as Bellevue and Kings County, are also wearing expired vests.
The PBA has called in the past for new vests for cops, as well as the union that reps the TLC officers and hospital cops.
"Inspectors are sitting ducks out there in areas where police have been shot," said Randy Klein of Teamsters Local 237, who wants the officers to be armed with tasers as well.
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