Greitens donates N95 masks to local law enforcement for COVID-19 protection

Former Gov. Eric Greitens has been busy this week delivering N95 masks to police, fire and first responder agencies in Missouri, including several hundred earmarked for the Jackson police and fire departments as well as the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office.

N95 masks and other personal protective equipment are in high demand by health care, law enforcement and other emergency personnel who being called on to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic across the country, including the Southeast Missouri region.

Charles A. “Drew” Juden III, who served as Missouri’s director of public safety under Greitens, delivered 200 masks to the Cape Girardeau County Commission on Thursday morning and asked that they be given to the sheriff’s department.

“This is a donation from former Gov. Greitens,” he said. “He’s put together a program to raise money to get N95 masks for first responders.”

Juden, who is running for sheriff against incumbent Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson in the Cape Girardeau County’s Aug. 4 Republican primary, said Greitens “called me probably about a week ago and said, ‘Hey, I want to give some (N95 masks) to you to be passed out in Southeast Missouri.’”

Greitens himself delivered thousands of masks in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas Monday and Tuesday, and although there was speculation he might have been doing so as a prelude to a campaign against Missouri Gov. Mike Parson in the August Republican primary, he did not submit candidacy documents before the end of the filing period Tuesday.

According to news reports, Greitens raised about $81,000 in private donations, which the St. Louis Fire Department Foundation used to purchase 12,000 masks for $6.80 each. Greitens obtained an additional 3,000 masks for a total of 15,000. While the bulk of those masks were given to the police and fire departments in St. Louis, several thousand were also delivered this week elsewhere throughout the state, including several law enforcement and first responder agencies in Southeast Missouri.

“I appreciate all of the help we have received and I am very thankful for masks,” said Dickerson. “They will play an important role in keeping Cape Girardeau County first responders safe including patrol officers handling calls, transport officers, jail officers and others as we work through this epidemic.”

Travis Hollis, chief of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, said neither the Cape Girardeau police nor fire departments requested any of the masks.

“We didn’t receive any,” he said and explained a “unified command and incident management team” has been established in Cape Girardeau County and one of the team’s responsibilities is to monitor COVID-19 resources, such as masks and other protective equipment for all law enforcement and emergency response agencies in the county.

“When I was contacted by the county emergency operations center director (about the masks Greitens was donating), I advised him that the three priorities were the Jackson Police Department, the Cape County Sheriff’s Office and Cape County volunteer fire departments,” Hollis said.

He said the Cape Girardeau police and fire departments have an adequate supply of masks.

“We have a stock that will last another few weeks, (but) the Jackson Police Department had less than 30 masks and the sheriff’s office had less than 100, making them more vulnerable than either of the Cape agencies. In short, it was the right thing to do.”

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