CLEVELAND — At the same time postal customers are being charged more to mail letters and packages, complaints of mail theft are skyrocketing while postal police are being ordered to stop investigating.
Our investigation into customer complaints of missing and stolen mail revealed nearly 300,000 complaints in a recent 12-month period—a whopping 161 percent increase over the year before. Yet the postal service has ordered postal police to stop patrol duties they say help safeguard the nation’s mail and letter carriers—instead confining them to post office properties.
Frank Albergo, President of the Postal Police Association, says it’s a rising problem and that postal police have long been an effective crime fighting tool in preventing mail theft. “I mean, people aren’t going to see a postal police officer and say hey—I think I’m going to rob this letter carrier or steal this tray of mail,” he said.