Letter carrier robberies continue as the US Postal Service, union and lawmakers seek solutions

When the US Postal Service launched Project Safe Delivery last year, officials promised they would “redouble” their efforts to combat the rising number of robberies against postal workers.

The crackdown led to hundreds of arrests and robberies decreased toward the end of the year. But overall, the number of mail carriers robbed in 2023 has risen again and the number of injuries has nearly doubled, as criminals continue to target carriers for their outdated “arrow keys” that allow access to mailboxes.

Legislation is being introduced in Congress this week to speed the replacement of tens of thousands of mailbox keys, boost prosecutions and revise sentencing guidelines.

It can’t come soon enough for letter carriers.

“We’re kind of outliers,” said Houston postal worker Tijuana Abbott, who accused postal officials of not doing enough to address the problem. “Enough is enough.”

The number of robberies against mail carriers rose to 643 last year, an increase of nearly 30%, and the number of robberies resulting in injuries doubled last year to 61, according to figures from the US Postal Inspection Service in response to a Freedom of Information request Act from The Associated Press.

All told, robberies have increased sixfold in the past decade and the number of mail carriers held at gunpoint has increased even further, an analysis of postal statistics shows.

As part of the Safe Delivery Project, which started last May, more than 1,200 arrests have been made for mail thefts and robberies of postmen. The Postal Inspection Service also conducted targeted law enforcement operations in troubled areas, including Chicago, San Francisco and cities throughout Ohio.

The effort also included the deployment of more than 10,000 high-security blue boxes in high-risk locations, and the installation of nearly 30,000 electronic locks on mailboxes.

There is a glimmer of hope. Mail robberies are down 19% over the past five months, while arrests for robberies of postal workers have increased 73% so far in fiscal year 2024, said Jeff Adams, Postal Service spokesman.

“We have been relentless in our pursuit of criminals who target postal workers and the U.S. Postal Service. The efforts of our postal inspectors and law enforcement partners have yielded positive results,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “We’re not done yet.”

Leaders of the Postal Service and the letter carriers union were outraged when a federal judge in San Francisco last month sentenced a man who held a gun to a postal worker’s head to just 30 days behind bars.

DeJoy called it “unacceptable.” The leader of the letter carriers’ union called it “absolutely ridiculous.”

“Postal carriers should be able to do their jobs without having to worry about someone sticking a gun in their face or attacking them in any way while they’re just trying to do their job and get their mail to the American people,” he said. the US Attorney. Kenneth Parker, whose southern Ohio district has seen increasing robberies of mail carriers.

In addition to being traumatizing for letter carriers, Parker said the robberies pose a “threat to democracy” because in addition to envelopes containing personal checks, prescriptions and other important items, many are now using the mail to send out ballots.

A bill is expected to be introduced in Congress this week to appropriate federal dollars to help replace the outdated keys with electronic versions that have no value to criminals, to require all 93 U.S. attorneys to appoint a post-crime prosecutor , and to revise sentencing guidelines. for postal crimes, said Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

The bipartisan legislation “provides resources to protect our dedicated Postal Service employees while ensuring we punish criminals to the fullest extent of the law,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, the lead sponsor in the House of Representatives.

Jeremiah Grant, a postal worker in Oklahoma City, was held up by a man wearing a mask in April 2022. He scrambled to remove his thick leather belt to which his key was attached as a gun was pointed at him. The gunman also grabbed his cell phone and destroyed it.

Unnerved by the experience and having trouble sleeping, Grant decided not to return to his route.

‘I’m no longer a letter carrier. I’m a clerk because I don’t feel safe going there,” Grant said. “It’s not a feeling I can shake, and it’s been almost two years now.”

Abbott, the Houston postal worker, was the victim of an attempted rape 20 years ago when she fended off a knife-wielding assailant on her mail route. Ten years later she was robbed of her arrow key.

Abbott has dealt with the trauma and still delivers mail. But she questions the sincerity of postal officials’ efforts to stop crime.

‘I believe they have abandoned us. We are being robbed of the keys and they are not doing anything about it,” she said. “I feel like they don’t care.”

Although unique circumstances led to the 30-day jail sentence in the San Francisco case, federal law allows a sentence of up to 10 years for an assault on a postal worker, and up to 25 years for a subsequent offense, officials said. Theft of mail carries a prison sentence of up to five years, and possession, concealment or disposition of property carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.

“There used to be a perception among the public that these were federal employees,” Renfroe said. “If you mess with them, you’ll be in big trouble. We have to make that a reality again.”