When most people think of problems with the Postal Service, they generally are whining about another bump in stamp prices. Not this time. It’s not delayed mail, either. “The biggest threats to USPS may be the mail handlers themselves.” To be crystal clear, the vast majority of mail handlers and carriers are impeccably honest. The few who aren’t are exceptionally dangerous.
Postal theft rampant
Auditors watching over the Postal Service found that “a tiny percentage” of mail handlers steal.
The problem is that “they steal a lot, according to a stunning federal investigation of a dozen mail sorting facilities across the U.S.” The problem is growing all the time.
Recently, in mid-December, “federal prosecutors charged two postal workers with stealing more than $1 million in business checks.” They worked at separate facilities.
One in Virginia, the other in North Carolina. The scary part is that their Inspector General found deeper issues.
I.G. Tammy L. Hull just released a stunning report, noting that “criminal organizations are targeting, recruiting and colluding with postal employees.” That’s not a good thing.
Apparently, they’re being bribed to move narcotics through the mail as well as paid cash to steal checks. They can get rich snagging “both personal and government-issued checks.” credit cards and other valuables can be fenced through the same market.
Infiltrate the post office
According to Frank Albergo, who’s president of the Postal Police Officers Association, job applicants aren’t all that interested in delivering or sorting the mail.
“They’re getting a job to steal mail.” Organized crime has turned it into a cottage industry.
“Criminal organizations” he notes, are recruiting mail workers “to infiltrate the postal service.” That, he emphasizes, “should be shocking to everyone.”
The year long audit targeted a dozen mail processing facilities but none in Texas. The border state isn’t squeaky clean, though. One plant in Houston “is undergoing a similar probe with the results to be announced in the spring.”
David Walton, a spokesperson for USPS, flatly declared “we have no additional comment.” Management gave a response to the investigation and they’re sticking to that. The auditing team “suggested a series of improvements including more training of employees, stronger national policy banning personal items from inside the facilities and updating some 18,619 cameras in plants throughout the nation.”
It seems that the Postal Service is plagued by security cameras that don’t work. Not only that, workers are allowed to “bring bags, backpacks, coats and jackets onto the plant floor. Mail can be transferred from a box to a jacket. With poor training the risk of getting caught is small.“
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