Letters sticking out of mail collection boxes are 'like a field day for a criminal,' Postal Police Officers Association president says
PLANO (CBSNewsTexas.com) – The U.S. treasury issued a dire warning Monday about a nationwide surge in check fraud.
That warning comes just as the national leader of the Postal Police Officers Association told CBS News Texas that your checks in the mail are at risk because his officers are not being allowed to do their jobs.
"When criminals see letters sticking out of a blue collection box, they know nothing is being done," said Frank Albergo, national president of the Postal Police Officers Association.
Photos like these from reports last month about overstuffed collection boxes outside North Texas post offices had Albergo shaking his head in frustration.
"If letters are sticking out of a blue collection box, that's literally like a field day for a criminal," he said.
He believes lax security at some collection boxes is part of a much bigger problem that's led to recent spike in mail theft complaints and stolen checks.
Mail theft complaints have increased 161%.
"Basically they've gutted the police force and they've done this to during a mail theft epidemic," Albergo said.
Albergo says in 2020, postal police officers were stripped of their duties protecting mail and letter carriers and now are little more than building security guards.
"This is really a recipe for disaster right now," he said.
He's referring to the rash of more than 60 letter carrier robberies since the beginning of the year, including one in Arlington and in Bedford.
In many cases, Albergo says they are targeted for collection box keys which could each contain hundreds checks that can be sold on the dark web, washed and cashed.
"We were doing the job for decades and decades, then all of a sudden the summer of 2020 they decided to pull us off the street since then mail theft absolutely exploded so have attacks on letter carriers," he said.
The Postal Police Officers Assocation filed a labor complaint seeking a return to expanded law enforcement duties.
Last week an arbitration ruling suggested they won their grievance.
But the postal service disagrees.
In a statement to CBS News Texas, USPS said:
"While the Postal Service disagrees with the decision, the arbitrator made it patently clear that nothing in the award should be construed to indicate that the Inspection Service is required to deploy Postal Police Officers anywhere outside of Postal Service controlled property."
Albergo says his group has been lobbying Congress to intervene.
Until then, a man who has spent more than 20 years as a postal police officer has this warning.
"Do not use the blue collection boxes – walk into the post office and mail your letter otherwise it's a disaster."
