A Knoxville postal worker was reportedly robbed at gunpoint last week as violence against United States Postal Service (USPS) employees skyrockets.
The suspect, still at large, allegedly robbed the postman of his “arrow key,” the universal key for the USPS’ ubiquitous blue boxes.
The USPS and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) are actively working to thwart mail crimes and violence against postal workers, according to a May release.
“As crime rises, so do the threats against our public servants,” said Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy. “The men and women of the Postal Service are walking our nation’s streets every day to fulfil our mission of delivering mail and packages to the American people. Every Postal employee deserves to work in safety and to be free from targeting by criminals seeking to access the public’s mail.”
According to USPS and USPIS:
Incidents of letter carrier robberies are on the rise across the nation. In FY22, 412 USPS letter carriers were robbed on the job. With 305 incidents reported in the first half of FY23, these incidents are increasingly more prevalent. Additionally, the agency reported an increase in high volume mail theft incidents from mail receptacles including blue collection boxes: 38,500 in FY22 and more than 25,000 in the first half of FY23. The Postal Service will continue to work with its unions and management associations on training and employee education for letter carriers and other postal workers.
“We’re doubling down on our efforts to protect our Postal employees and the security of the 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 Postal Inspection Service Chief Gary Barksdale.
Just weeks ago, a Memphis man was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for brandishing a firearm while aiding and abetting several postal workers’ armed robberies, as The Tennessee Star reported.
USPIS did not return a Tuesday comment request.
Meanwhile, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee Monday introduced a bill to help stop the flow of deadly drugs into the United States via the postal service.
Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) introduced the Uniform Postal Data Acquisition for Transparency and Early Detection, which will “stop China and other bad actors from using the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to send fentanyl and other deadly drugs into communities across the United States.”
“Bad actors are not only smuggling deadly fentanyl across our southern border, but they are also mailing it into our communities from overseas,” Kustoff said. “We must provide all law enforcement agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, the resources they need to protect American citizens. That is why I joined Rep. Mike Ezell to introduce this important legislation that will help stop the flow of dangerous drugs into our country.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “United States Postal Service” by Trinity Nguyen.
