USPS Crime Crackdown Leads to 600 Arrests
The United States Postal Service‘s (USPS) crime crackdown has led to the arrest of more than 600 suspects since May.
The agency’s federal law enforcement arm, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, arrested 109 for robberies and more than 530 for mail theft. The branch said it will continue to collaborate with local, state and federal law enforcement and conduct targeted surge operations focusing on those high postal crime areas.
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Announced in May 2023, USPS launched Project Safe Delivery to fight rising threats and attacks on letter carriers and mail theft incidents. To kick off the campaign, postal inspectors, alongside several internal units and outside law enforcement agencies, focused much of their efforts in Chicago, San Francisco and several cities in Ohio.
Since instituting the expanded crime prevention measures, inspectors conducted more than 700 investigative actions, including arresting suspects and other court authorized law enforcement activities. They also engaged in over 375 prevention activities, including meeting with postal employees to offer tips on employee safety and mail theft prevention.
“As our nation continues to address a sustained crime wave, our targeted focus to crack down on postal crime is progressing,” said Postmaster General and USPS CEO Louis DeJoy, in a statement. “The safety of our letter carriers—and all postal employees—is our top priority. We will continue to work steadfastly with our law enforcement partners to increase the safety of our employees and protect the sanctity of the nation’s mail.”
The announcement on Wednesday as the National Association of Letter Carriers calls for better mail carrier protection and harsher punishment for the criminals who rob them. Recent nationwide rallies will include events on Tuesday in Denver and Wednesday in Houston.
The crackdown on postal crimes comes as merchants across the U.S. facing a surge in shoplifting and organized retail crimes at brick-and-mortar stores. National chains including Target, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS have all closed some stores in response to the shrink problem. And on the road, USPS isn’t the only carrier concerned with bad actors—cargo theft incidents in the U.S. and Canada skyrocketed 57 percent year over year to 582 in the second quarter of 2023, according to cargo theft security network CargoNet.
To reduce letter carrier robberies, the Postal Service is in the process of replacing tens of thousands of postal carriers’ universal keys that criminals use to steal mail and commit check fraud, officials said. So far, 6,500 of the keys have been replaced with electronic locks in some cities, with another 42,500 set to be deployed, officials said.
USPS also aims to prevent mail theft by deploying more than 10,000 high-security blue boxes in high-risk locations to prevent criminals from breaking into them.
The agency said it has seen a 99.3 percent reduction in fraudulent “change of address” submissions, which serves as a deterrent to identify theft in cases where a fraudster intercepts financially oriented mail such as credit cards or checks.
USPS also cut counterfeit package postage usage by 50 percent. It attributes this win to developing a system that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis to identify, intercept and retain counterfeit or hijacked labels on packages.
One such victory came in May, when an analysis conducted by the Inspection Service led to the arrest of a Chinese national in Los Angeles for running an alleged counterfeit postage scheme and shipping more than 9 million pieces of mail with $60 million in counterfeit postage.
“We have effectively focused our efforts with USPS on hardening both physical and digital targets to combat threats to postal employees and secure the mail,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale. “We continue to turn up the pressure and put potential perpetrators on notice; If you attack Postal employees, steal the mail or commit other postal crimes, Postal Inspectors will bring you to justice. We ask that the public assist us with our mission.”
In August, the Inspection Service increased monetary rewards for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a perpetrator of mail crime. Information related to the murder or manslaughter of a USPS employee or contractor would garner a $250,000 reward, while those providing details on assault on postal employees or any robberies would net $150,000 on compensation.
Theft alone can be punished by up to five years in prison; possession or disposal of postal property carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Assaulting a mail carrier can also lead to a 10-year sentence for a first-time offense. Repeat offenders can get 25 years for an assault.
