For years, postal police patrolled the streets alongside letter carriers, protecting them and making arrests as any federal officer would.
But they have had their hands tied since 2020, when Postmaster Louis DeJoy issued a directive limiting postal police to protecting U.S Postal Service property.
The postal police union sued to prevent DeJoy from restricting the officers as crimes against letter carriers skyrocketed. But the lawsuit was unsuccessful.
Lawmakers are introducing a new bill in Washington to again ensure postal police have the authority to protect letter carriers on the streets.
The Postal Police Reform Act will be introduced to the U.S. Senate Wednesday by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
They hope the bill will be more successful than a House-sponsored one with the same name. That bill, also bipartisan, was first introduced in 2021, stalled, and then was reintroduced earlier this year.
In announcing the legislation, Durbin blasted DeJoy’s “dangerous” directive to prevent postal police from patrolling outside postal service property.
“Letter carriers deserve to feel safe while on the job, and the Postal Police Reform Act will ensure that Postal Police Officers can adequately protect letter carriers from the real threats on their routes,” Durbin said in a statement.
Durbin has sparred publicly with DeJoy over the last year, publicizing letters sent to the postmaster general to demand accountability for the rise in violence against mail carriers.
USPS said Durbin’s accusations “couldn’t be further from the truth.” The agency pointed to its Project Safe Delivery, begun in May, that has addressed some of the major causes of mail theft.
Advocates of the bill, whose sponsors include the unions for postal police and their supervisors, say putting postal police back on patrol will help address rising crime against mail carriers, who are being targeted for their master “arrow” keys. Criminals use the keys to steal letters from blue mailboxes to commit check fraud, or “check washing.”
Assaults against postal workers increased 231% over the last three years, according to Durbin’s office. Mail theft more than doubled from 2021 to 2022.
Crime against Chicago letter carriers happens so often, some mail carriers are robbed on the first week on the job, Elise Foster, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers’s Chicago branch, told reporters in April. She did not reply to a request for comment for this story.
Earlier this month, the Postal Inspection Service offered a reward for information about a man who robbed a letter carrier in her work van in Humboldt Park.
Rising crime has left postal workers complaining of feeling vulnerable on the job.
The postal service saw a turnover rate of 60% in 2022, a steep increase from the already high rate of 39% in 2019, Durbin’s team said. The staffing shortage has resulted in abysmal mail delivery service in some areas. Some “mail deserts” in Chicago have gone without delivery for weeks.
‘Postal Service pays for officers that it doesn’t use’
When DeJoy curbed postal police three years ago, he pointed to language in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act suggesting postal police jurisdiction is limited to protect USPS “property.”
The postal police union went to federal court to overturn DeJoy’s interpretation of that law. The union argued the law allows postal police to protect letter carriers when they deliver mail.
But a U.S. district judge sided with the postal service, saying the agency’s narrow interpretation of the law was “reasonable and therefore entitled to deference,” even though the judge admitted the law was “ambiguous,” as written.
With the legal fight lost so far, advocates have turned to legislation to amend that language to force DeJoy to allow postal police back on patrol.
The union for postal police said it believes putting police on patrol will help curb crimes against letter carriers.
“The Postal Service pays for officers that it doesn’t use,” said Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association. “Hopefully this straightens the Postal Service out.”
Albergo said he suspects DeJoy limited the patrol powers of postal police to cut down on their pay. According to their union contract agreement, USPS would need to pay police two grades higher to go out on patrol, he said.
In its statement, USPS said it restricted patrols after its law department advised as such, to both “protect individual [postal police officers] and the Postal Service more broadly from legal liability.”
USPS also said its inspection service, separate from its postal police officers, already engages in off-site surveillance and protection of letter carriers.
About 450 postal police officers work under the U.S Postal Inspection Service in about 20 cities, Albergo said. The Chicago area used to have about 150 officers, he said, but now has about 15.
DeJoy was slow to publicly respond to rising postal crime.
Earlier this year, DeJoy addressed what he called a “sustained crime wave” by raising rewards the service offers in criminal cases.
USPS presented its Project Safe Delivery plan to Congress in May to address postal crime. Since then, USPS has boasted of installing more than 10,000 blue collection boxes that use electronic locks instead of arrow keys.
But putting postal police back on patrol was not one of the measures proposed.
USPS has failed to set meaningful goals in addressing mail theft, the postal service inspector general found in a September audit report. The audit also found that USPS does not require special training for postal inspectors assigned to investigate mail theft.
Durbin’s team said the new bill will be assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, and he will lead the hearing when the bill is called.
