Frank Albergo is president of the Postal Police Officers Association.
“I think criminals are starting to realize what an easy crime this is,” Albergo said. “There aren’t many arrests made. Postal police officers are no longer patrolling these hot spots where this is taking place.”
Albergo says in 2020, the postal service essentially defunded its own uniformed police force in the midst of a mail theft epidemic. Although the PPOs still exist, they’re confined to postal facilities.
“We still travel from one post office to another post office, but in that line of travel, if we see mail theft in progress or we see a letter carrier being robbed, we’re told to drive away, call 911 and do nothing,” he explained. “We’re federal police officers and we’re being told by the postal service to do nothing. That’s sick.”
Albergo notes there are more postal inspectors than postal police officers.
“Imagine a police force that has more detectives than unformed cops,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
