Mail theft on alarming rise as the Postal Service readies for busy holiday season

As Americans flood the mail with holiday cards and gifts, their valuables and personal information remain at risk for theft due to internal bad actors and issues with deploying modernized technology, according to two recent reports from the United States Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.

Thefts committed by U.S. Postal Service employees spiked to 1,790 closed cases in fiscal year 2023, and totaled 5,961 closed internal mail theft cases between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2023, according to an Oct. 30 report.

The Office of Inspector General identified that inconsistent nationwide policies restricting personal belongings on workroom floors, nonfunctioning cameras, increased supervisor vacancies, and a lack of mail theft awareness training for employees contributed to the rising thefts.

“Employee mail theft damages the Postal Service’s reputation and diminishes public trust in the nation’s mail system. If the Postal Service does not have nationwide policies around what can be brought onto workroom floors and develop more robust training on mail theft awareness, there is a continued risk of internal mail theft occurring in processing facilities nationwide.,” the Oct. 30 report said. “Additionally, without ensuring there is adequate supervision on the workroom floor, employees will continue to have opportunities to steal checks, gift cards, narcotics and other items from the mailstream, and customers will not receive their mail.”

Robberies of letter carriers and mail receptacles by outside actors have also been an ongoing issue over the last five years, according to a Raw Story investigation that found a 543 percent increase in robberies of postal workers between 2019 and 2022 and an 87 percent increase in high-volume mail receptacle theft in the same three-year time period.

Experts estimate that the value of checks stolen from the mail totals nearly $100 million per month.

While the Postal Service “demonstrated” its commitment to improving mail security and carrier safety, its modernization efforts for mobile scanning devices and electronic locks, meant to better protect the mail and reduce the targeting of letter carriers for their keys, have fallen short, according to a Nov. 5 report.

The Postal Service reported the loss or theft of 1,936 of its real-time delivery scanning devices, some of which also open electronic locks, resulting in an undisclosed loss totaling millions of dollars. The Office of Inspector General estimates the total number of lost and stolen devices could total 7,209 nationwide, resulting in a further loss of millions of dollars (specific numbers were redacted from the report).

"The redacted monetary value is considered to be commercially sensitive to the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be disclosed," Tara Linne, director of communications for the United States Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General, told Raw Story via email.

Other issues with the scanning devices include connectivity issues, insufficient training, inadequate battery oversight and limited deployment of features, according to the report.

In response to the spike in mail theft over the past few years, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy launched an initiative called “Project Safe Delivery” in May 2023 to better protect letter carriers with higher-security locks and mailboxes, increased accountability for arrow keys—universal keys that open mailboxes in a given zip code—and better law enforcement.

The initiative called for the replacement of 49,000 antiquated arrow locks — which is .5 percent of all 9 million arrow key locks nationwide. So far, 28,000 eLocks were installed as of March 2024, and the installation of 12,270 purchased eLocks were put on hold for various reasons, including installation wait-times, insufficient facility equipment and incompatible collection boxes, costing an undisclosed loss in the millions of dollars.

The Postal Service did not provide a specific plan for how it plans to install the eLocks on hold by the end of 2024, the report said.

"Here we go again," Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told Raw Story. "They had the same problem in 2020 with the antiquated locks that they weren't accounted for, and management controls were ineffective, and it seems the electronic locks, they're having the exact same issue."

The Postal Police Officers Association union has been embroiled in a four-year-long dispute with the Postal Service about its ability to protect letter carriers and the mail off postal property.

A second phase of the program to install another 50,000 eLocks was canceled and to be replaced with “a new lock capable of greater mail receptacle compatibility and less unlocking delay,” according to the Nov. 5 report. Further details about the new locks were not provided.

“The traditional arrow keys have been a target of thieves, looking to steal a key to gain access to collection boxes, as well as cluster boxes along a carrier’s route,” the Nov. 5 report said. “The eLocks provide a safer environment for postal employees to collect and deliver mail by eliminating the utility of a lone key for those looking to steal mail.”

The Office of the Inspector General also found that 14 of 15 facilities visited still used paper logbooks to keep track of its arrow keys.

“Arrow keys are specific target items involved in mail theft and carrier assaults; knowledge of unsecured arrow keys may cause the facility and its employees to become a target of theft or robbery,” the report continued. “The Postal Service risks a diminished reputation and public trust in the nation’s mail.”

Under DeJoy's leadership, the postal service has continued to face massive deficits, losing nearly $10 billion in the 2024 fiscal year ending in September. Last year's losses totaled $6.5 billion, CBS reported. Earlier this year, DeJoy paused his plans to consolidate postal service facilities until January amid mounting pressure from Congress.

The United States Postal Service and its law enforcement arm, the United States Postal Inspection Service, did not respond to Raw Story's request for comment, nor did the National Association of Letter Carriers and American Postal Workers Union.

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