U.S. Postal Service touts crackdown on postal crime with hundreds of arrests

With mail theft and postal service robberies up, legislation enforcement officers have made greater than 600 arrests since Might in a crackdown launched to handle crime that features carriers being accosted at gunpoint for his or her antiquated common keys, the Postal Service introduced Wednesday.

Criminals are each stealing mail and concentrating on carriers’ so-called “arrow keys” to get entry to mailboxes.

“We’ll proceed to show up the stress and put potential perpetrators on discover: Should you’re attacking postal workers, should you steal the mail or commit different postal crimes, postal inspectors will convey you to justice,” Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale informed reporters on Wednesday.

The Postal Service announcement on Wednesday got here in opposition to a backdrop of rallies by the Nationwide Affiliation of Letter Carriers calling for higher safety of carriers and harsh punishment for criminals who rob them. They have been held throughout the nation in current months, together with one Tuesday in Denver and one other Wednesday in Houston.

“Postal carriers need to hold their head on a swivel. They need to take precautions to be further vigilant with their environment,” Rick Byrne, president of the Colorado State Affiliation of Letter Carriers, stated Wednesday.

Letter carriers are on edge after practically 500 of them had been robbed final yr. Criminals more and more focused the mail to commit monetary crimes like altering checks to acquire cash.

Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy stated in a press release that it is necessary to guard the “sanctity of the nation’s mail” however that his prime precedence is the security of these delivering it.

To scale back robberies, the Postal Service is within the technique of changing tens of hundreds of postal carriers’ common keys which can be sought by criminals looking for to steal mail to commit examine fraud, officers stated. To date, 6,500 of the keys have been changed with digital locks in choose cities, and one other 42,500 are set to be deployed, officers stated. The Postal Service has declined to say how lots of the arrow keys are in service.

To forestall mail theft, the Postal Service additionally has deployed greater than 10,000 high-security blue packing containers in high-risk areas to stop individuals from breaking into them.

The Postal Service additionally applied modifications that diminished fraudulent change-of-a-address transactions by 99.3% over the previous fiscal yr, and so they’ve diminished counterfeit postage by 50%, as nicely, officers stated.

The Postal Service is touting its successes after a crucial report by its personal watchdog, the Workplace of Inspector Basic. Issued late final month, it faulted administration for a scarcity of “actionable milestones,” accountability for staffing and coaching, and upgrading carriers’ common keys.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is main the hassle with different inner models and out of doors legislation enforcement companies. Early efforts targeted on organized mail crime in Chicago, San Francisco and a number of other cities throughout Ohio.

Of the 600-plus arrests made since Might as a part of “Operation Protected Supply,” greater than 100 had been for robberies whereas greater than 530 had been for mail theft, officers informed reporters Wednesday.

The penalty is steep for interfering with the mail.

Theft alone may be punished by as much as 5 years in jail; possession or disposal of postal property carries a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail. Assaulting a mail service may result in a 10-year sentence for a first-time offense. Repeat offenders can get 25 years for an assault.