ORLANDO, Fla. — Today, for the first time amid renewed calls for better protection for postal carriers following hundreds of robberies so far this year, the Postmaster General faced tough questions from congressional leaders about the plan to protect your mail.
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9 Investigates has been covering this issue for months, and today, some lawmakers questioned why the agency seems to be focused on property more than people.
Those blue mailboxes are being hit up more often. 9 Investigates obtained numbers showing more than 25,000 incidents of high-volume mail theft from the boxes in the first half of this fiscal year, and in that same time period, 305 letter carriers have been robbed on the job.
The USPS announced ‘Project Safe Delivery.’ It’s a plan to crack down on attacks and keep your mail safe, including installing 12,000 high security blue collection boxes nationwide and 49,000 electronic locks to replace the arrow keys.
Today, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he doesn’t have the authority to send out officers to patrol, or the manpower needed to be effective.
During three hours of questions from lawmakers on everything from delivery times to postage fees, some of the most pointed exchanges related to the safety of your mail and those who carry it.
“The Postal Service’s proposal focuses on hardening physical infrastructure, which helps with mail theft, but it really doesn’t do anything to keep postal workers safer when out on their rounds,” Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of New York said.
READ: The changes being made, and those still needed, to protect mail carriers and your mail
Several members of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability wanted to know why Postal Police Department officers weren’t being used to protect mail carriers. It comes just days after two postal workers were robbed in Central Florida, with hundreds of those incidents reported nationwide in the last six months. Investigators believe the same people are responsible for both attacks. The postal workers in Melbourne and Orlando were robbed for their arrow keys, which open large blue or cluster mailboxes; opening the door for financial crimes and identity theft.
“With regard to the Postal Police, I enjoy my interactions with [them], and if I had 60,000 of them, I would ask for the authority to do what you’re asking me to do, but I don’t. I have 600,” DeJoy said. “They haven’t done that in the past,” he said about patrolling along mail routes.
DeJoy pointed to the lack of manpower and lack of authority to allow those officers to patrol outside of post offices, which is something the officers’ union disputes and is suing over.
READ: Arbitrator sides with Postal Police union on patrol debate amid arrow key attacks
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