Police, firefighters look to Trump for help as masks and gloves go to health care workers

Police, firefighters and corrections officers are urging President Donald Trump to use his emergency authority to get them gloves and masks because scarce rations of protective gear are mostly going to health care workers.

The first responders are the latest group to push Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act, the Korean War-era law that gives the president the power to control distribution and force companies to prioritize the federal government’s orders. Governors and public health officials have been pleading with Trump to use the act to stop bidding wars between states amid the dire shortages of safety gear, but the president has so far only sparingly invoked it.

The first responders say that’s left them vulnerable because dwindling supplies of protective equipment are largely going to health care workers even as coronavirus cases are mounting among emergency responders: One in five New York emergency medical service workers is sick or quarantined, and 15 percent of the New York City police force either has the virus or is quarantined as a precaution. In Detroit, 500 police officers are quarantined and the police chief has tested positive. National law enforcement groups estimate that ten percent of their ranks across the country are out sick.

“Our concern is we risk getting lost in the shuffle,” said Bill Johnson, executive director for the National Association for Police Organizations. “We’re grateful for the men and women in health care and recognize their need to be protected as well but we also need that same protection.”

First responder groups said they haven’t heard back on their request for a meeting with the president to discuss the issue. A White House spokesperson said state officials are supposed to be in charge of helping emergency workers get protective gear.

Leaders from the National Sheriffs Association, the International Fire Chiefs Association, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and six other groups, wrote directly to the president last week urging him to use the Defense Production Act to secure masks and gloves. They also made the plea in calls with White House staff and officials at the Justice and Homeland Security departments.

"We are still pushing the White House to enhance coordination not just with the states but with the local government, particularly with county hospitals and sheriffs,” said Matt Chase, executive director of the National Association of Counties, which also signed the letter. “We need to really use the purchasing power and the logistical support of the federal government to help us."

The lack of a response is testing the traditionally friendly relationship between Trump and law enforcement.

“We’re a little bit taken aback that nothing is seemingly being done to support the first responders,” said one law enforcement association executive who’s been involved with conversations with the White House. “We’re not getting the information that I think we deserve and that we've come to expect from the administration.”

The White House said state officials have the authority to delegate who receives equipment that is given to the states.

“Every level of government needs to deliver solutions and that is what we are doing in partnership,” said a White House spokesperson.

According to FEMA, the administration has already delivered 11.6 million N-95 respirators, 26 million surgical masks and 5.2 million face shields to states from the federal government’s reserve stockpile of medical supplies.

In addition, the Trump administration approved the first system for sterilizing specialized face masks worn by health workers — an emergency use authorization that could help ease the severe shortage of protective gear.

The system can decontaminate up to 80,000 medical masks per day, and will be deployed to coronavirus hot spots — such as New York and Washington state. The company, Battelle, plans to ship four more machines in the U.S. next week and 15 more in the coming weeks.

But even as Trump officials say the problem is nearly solved, health care workers, police officers, EMS workers and corrections officers say they are dangerously low on supplies.

“Deputies are responding with bandanas over their faces,” said Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney in Madison, Wis., who also serves as the vice president for the National Sheriffs Association. “If in the 21st century first responders are having to wear bandanas to protect themselves, we have already lost the battle.”

When governors do receive a shipment from the federal government, they have been prioritizing health care workers. Wisconsin this week took a delivery of 52,000 respirator masks and 131,000 surgical masks from the federal government. Gov. Tony Evers prioritized health care workers, EMS, nursing homes and assisted living facilities and put in a separate request to the federal government to cover law enforcement.

Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said his group is urging both the Department of Homeland Security and state officials to prioritize law enforcement. “As this goes on and more and more law enforcement officers can’t respond to calls because they’re infected or quarantined, what you’re going to see is a much more diminished law enforcement presence in agencies big and small across this country,” Yoes said.

The problem is growing in prisons and jails as well. In the District of Columbia, six inmates have tested positive as of Tuesday morning as have three officers and the wife of a third, according to J. Michael Hannon, an attorney representing the corrections officers union. He said the numbers are likely higher but inmates and officers are only being tested when they show severe symptoms. Officers, he said, are bringing their own bleach and whatever protective equipment they own to stay safe.

“It’s only a matter of time before one of two things happen: Officers refuse to go on the block without protective equipment or there are not enough officers to run the jail,” he said. “It is simply not acceptable in triaging for this crisis to expect corrections officers to die.”

Betsy Woodruff Swan and Rachel Roubein contributed to this report.