JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A sharp rise in crimes targeting U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter carriers, and mailboxes themselves has sparked renewed calls to restore the jurisdiction and street presence of Postal Police Officers (PPO).
Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, argued that deploying officers back on patrol is a common-sense step toward protecting workers and securing the nation’s mail.
In 2019, there were 64 reported robberies of letter carriers nationwide according to Albergo. That number has ballooned to over 643 in 2023, according to the Postal Police Union.
“Letter carriers used to worry about dogs. Now they have to worry about guns,” he said.
Many robberies are motivated by a single tool: an arrow key, which grants access to multiple mailboxes in a zip code, enabling mail theft and subsequent crimes like identity theft and bank fraud
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“Every day, a letter carrier is being robbed across America, and the downstream effects of a letter carrier robbery are severe,” Albergo said.
He added the Postal Police once boasted a force of 2,700 officers patrolling high-crime areas to deter mail theft and protect carriers. However, in 2020, amid budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, their jurisdictional authority was restricted. Today, they are deployed in just 20 major cities, leaving significant gaps in coverage.
“Restore postal police, jurisdictional authority and use postal police in the most cost-efficient way possible, and that is to put us back out on the streets to protect letter carriers and protect the mail, I mean, this is common sense,” he said.
Last year, the agency launched “Project Safe Delivery,” resulting in a 73% increase in arrests compared to the prior year. The initiative includes law enforcement surges in major cities and high-crime areas, in collaboration with federal and local agencies.