USPS Fighting Robberies, Mail Thefts With New Efforts; Physical, Digital Targets Now Being Hardened

USPS announced its new efforts to fight carrier robberies and mail thefts.

The postal service provider shared its plans after the National Association of Letter Carriers expressed its outrage this May.

Recently, The Associated Press reported that there is a spike in robberies of postal carriers. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) confirmed that mail thefts increased to nearly 500 back in 2022.

Because of this, the NALC was disappointed saying that it was angered by the armed robberies, assaults, and murders experienced by letter carriers.

USPS To Fight Carrier Robberies, Mail Thefts With New Efforts

According to CTV News' latest report, USPS is now taking new actions to protect its American letter carriers from robberies and other crimes.

(Photo: BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)
A postal worker leans against a truck at a post office in the Borough of the Bronx on August 17, 2020, in New York. - The United States Postal Service is popularly known for delivering mail despite snow, rain, or heat, but it faces a new foe in President Donald Trump.

The agency said it is doubling down its efforts to ensure the safety of USPS employees, as well as to protect their 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 Gary Barksdale, the USPIS chief.

As of writing, criminals reportedly target mail carriers in an organized manner. This allows them to commit financial crimes, such as check fraud and check altering.

Because of this, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that mail carriers, especially those delivering over 162 million pieces of first-class mail every day, should have enough protection so that they can be free from crimes.

USPS Anti-Crime Efforts

USPS said that one of its efforts is to replace antiquated keys used by postal carriers, tens of thousands of them.

The postal service provider will also install thousands of high-security collection boxes. USPS expects these boxes to prevent the surge in robberies and mail thefts.

To give you more idea, here are the specific plans of USPS to protect its letter carriers:

• Replacing 49,000 antiquated arrow locks.
• Installing 12,000 hardened blue collection boxes.

If you want to learn more details about the latest efforts of USPS against mail crimes, you can click here.

Here are other stories we wrote about USPS activities:

In 2021, the USPS-Oshkosh Defense partnership for electric mail truck production was announced. In 2022, the new USPS stamp featuring NASA's JWST was introduced.

For more news updates about USPS and its upcoming efforts, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.