TOLEDO, Ohio — A union representing postal police officers is reacting to a rise in mail thefts and robberies of postal carriers in Sylvania Township.
WTOL 11 reported on Sept. 14 that Sylvania Township Police were investigating around 40 cases of mail theft and fraud.
One elderly couple told WTOL 11, one of their personal checks they dropped in a blue collection box outside their post office on Monroe Street was stolen and then altered, leaving them out hundreds of dollars.
The United States Postal Service confirmed the thefts and robberies of the postal carriers.
The national president of the Postal Police Officers Association, Frank Albergo, reached out to WTOL after the story on Sept. 14 and said the Postal Service needs to do more to protect mail carriers.
In an email to WTOL 11, Albergo said, "Postal Police Officers (PPOs), for years, were conducting mail theft prevention and letter carrier protection patrols by using data to target specific zip codes where mail theft was most prevalent. Unsurprisingly, it was highly effective in preventing postal-related crime."
But then on August 25, 2020, the Postal Service reinterpreted enabling statute in order to decrease postal police law enforcement jurisdiction thereby ending all postal police patrolling activities."
USPS and the United States Postal Inspection Service announced expanded actions to protect postal employees in May 2023.
“As crime rises, so do the threats against our public servants,” said Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy. “The men and women of the Postal Service are walking our nation’s streets every day to fulfil our mission of delivering mail and packages to the American people. Every postal employee deserves to work in safety and to be free from targeting by criminals seeking to access the public's mail.”
“We’re doubling down on our efforts to protect our postal employees and the security of the mail. We are hardening targets – both physical and digital – to make them less desirable to thieves and working with our law enforcement partners to bring perpetrators to justice,” said Postal Inspection Service Chief Gary Barksdale.
According to the Postal Service, incidents of letter carrier robberies are on the rise across the country. 412 USPS letter carriers were robbed on the job in fiscal year 2022. With 305 incidents reported in the first half of fiscal year 2023, the Postal Service said these incidents are increasingly prevalent.
The Postal Service also reported an increase in mail theft incidents from blue collection boxes. There were 38,500 in fiscal year 2022 and more than 25,000 in the first half of fiscal year 2023. The Postal Service said at the time it would continue to work with its unions and management associations on training and employee education for letter carriers and other postal workers.
By ending the PPO patrolling activities, Albergo said, "Essentially, the Postal Service defunded its own uniformed police force in the midst of a mail theft epidemic."
The Postal Service has not yet responded to WTOL 11's request for comment regarding Albergo's claims.
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