USPS operators continue to be robbed - what it means for your mail
More and more postal attacks have been reported across the country.
THE American postal service (USPS) Often underlines his commitment to the security of our mail - and it is essential, given the agency's number of confidence with things like our prescriptions or our invoices. But the capacity of the postal service to Protect our mail Perhaps more difficult given a number of recent alarming incidents, as more and more USPS carriers have said it was stolen. Read the rest to discover what these crimes mean for your mail.
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USPS carriers in the United States are stolen.
In only the last month, there have been several reports detailing attacks on postal employees in different parts of the country.
A USPS carrier was stolen under the threat of a weapon In North Hollywood on July 11, reported NBC Los Angeles. The same day, another postal service agent was attacked and stolen In a San Francisco post office, according to CBS News.
A few weeks later, the WTKR affiliated to CBS reported that a man had been arrested On the other side of the country as part of a series of USPS flights in the county of James City, Virginia, on July 20.
Now another new report is out of San Francisco. NBC Bay Area reported on August 1 that a USPS factor had been stolen A few days earlier in the Richmond region of the city, which is described as a "normally created district of San Francisco".
It is not only rare events that have drawn unusual media attention. In a May 12 Press release , the USPS has confirmed that crime against postal has become a major problem.
"The incidents of theft of letters of letters are increasing across the country," said the postal service. During the entire year 2022, 412 letters of letters were stolen at work, according to the agency. In comparison, 305 flights had already been reported in the first half of the 2023 fiscal year.
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They are targeted for their mail keys.
With most of these flights, criminals are generally after something from USPS workers: their mail keys.
"You no longer have to steal a bank. You just fly your letter holder, access a blue collection box or a relay box, and boom, you have Thousands of dollars "President of the Association of Postal Police Officers (PPOA) Frank Albergo told NBC-Affiliate News4 in Washington, D.C.
According to Albergo, the keys stolen from the pardon holders, also known as Keys Arrow, can generally open several mailboxes in a community.
"These arrow keys give access to collection boxes, apartments, relay boxes, cluster boxes. So, instead of obtaining some letters, they actually get baths and Mail bags, "he told News4.
In 2020, the Postal's Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report This warned against agency management controls on these keys.
"More specifically, the number of arrow keys in circulation is unknown, and the local units have not adequate, stolen or broken keys or kept keys," said the report. "The ineffective controls of the arrow keys increase the risk that these elements be lost or stolen and not detected." AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB
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Mail flight is increasing accordingly.
While operators continue to be robbed in the United States, the risk that your mail is stolen is increasing. The American postal inspection service (USPSIS) said to CBS Moneywatch In June, this mail flight increased as part of a broader national trend in "increased crime models".
The agency's law enforcement branch declared that it had received around 300,000 complaints concerning the stolen mail in 2021, which was more than double what had been reported a year earlier.
The USPS also confirmed "the increase in the flight of mail at high volume" in its press release in May. According to the agency, 38,500 mail incidents were stolen in the mail containers during the year 2022 and more than 25,000 incidents in the first half for the year 2023.
"As crime increases, threats against our civil servants," said the general post office Louis Dejoy said in a press release at the time. “The men and women of the postal service work every day every day from our streets in our country to carry out our mission of delivery of mail and parcels to the American people. Each postal employee deserves to work safely and be free to targeting by criminals seeking to access the public's email. ""
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The USPS strives to repress this problem.
The USPS and the USPSIS work to try to stop the rise in mail flight on its traces. In May, the agency announced that it would deploy extended crime prevention measures to "protect postal employees and the security of national email and packages".
These new actions are being implemented through their joint security delivery initiative, which focuses on reducing the flights of letters of letters and theft of mail, according to the press release of May 12.
“We double our efforts to protect our postal employees and mail safety. We will last the targets - both physical and digital - to make them less desirable to thieves and work with our law enforcement partners to translate the perpetrators into court "USPSIS chief Gary Barksdale said in a press release.
A large part of these new measures are centered on the keys that criminals are often after when attacking the carriers.
"Criminals use arrow and bad keys to steal the mail of secure mail recepts to commit financial crimes, in particular the modification of checks to commit check in the check. To make arrow keys less precious for criminals, the service Postal will replace 49,000 locks outdated with electronic locks "," the agency explained.
