An arbitrator overturned a 2020 memo that confined the postal police force to acting solely as building security guards.
The U.S. Postal Service must throw out its policy limiting its uniformed police force to act only as security guards on agency property, an arbitrator has ruled, but management suggested it will still not expand the officers’ roles.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a USPS component and of which the Postal Police Officers are a part, issued a memorandum in August 2020 formally limiting force of several hundred employees to their more limited duty. Absent specific authorization from leadership, PIS said, the officers could not engage in law enforcement activities off postal premises. The PPO Association filed a grievance, suggesting PIS had created a new policy and violated its obligation to negotiate over it.