HOUSTON – Postal Police Officers, or PPO’s, exist. PPO’s have been employed by the United States Postal Service and overseen by the United States Postal Inspection Service for decades.
According to the National President Postal Police Officers Association, Frank Albergo, they patrolled streets for 50 years protecting mail and mail carriers.
“People are not going to rob a letter carrier knowing that postal police officers are on patrol,” he said.
But in 2020, a USPS memorandum changed their jurisdiction, making it so PPO’s are only allowed to man postal buildings – no longer able to patrol.
“There are postal police officers in Houston, and they’re not being utilized to stop mail theft. This isn’t hard to figure out. You have postal police officers that specialize in mail theft prevention and protection of mail carriers and the postal service refuses to use them,” said Albergo.