After a spike in robberies of mail carriers nationwide, the U.S. Postal Service announced Friday that it is rolling out high-security blue collection boxes and replacing arrow keys with electronic locks.
Previously, the arrow keys carried by mail carriers were able to open the old model of blue collection boxes, allowing thieves to rifle through mail for checks and other valuables.
“We’re doubling down on our efforts to protect our Postal employees and the security of the mail. We are hardening targets – both physical and digital – to make them less desirable to thieves and working with our law enforcement partners to bring perpetrators to justice,” U.S. Postal Inspection Service Chief Gary Barksdale said.
For high-risk areas, 12,000 blue boxes, harder than before, are being deployed throughout the next fiscal year. In order to reduce the incentive of stealing keys off of postal workers, 49,000 locks previously opened by arrow keys will be replaced with new electronic locks.
In fiscal year 2022, 412 letter carriers were robbed on the job; there were 305 such incidents in the first half of fiscal year 2023 alone. In addition, there were 38,500 instances of high-volume mail theft in fiscal year 2022, and 25,000 instances in the first half of fiscal year 2023.
Incidents in fiscal year 2023 include but are by no means limited to the Dec. 9, 2022, of mail carrier Aundre Cross in Milwaukee, the slashing of another postal worker with a machete in Lowell, Massachusetts, in March, and the April 26 robbery at gunpoint of a carrier in Olney, Maryland in the D.C. suburbs.
“The National Association of Letter Carriers is outraged and angered by the assaults, armed robberies and even murders that America’s letter carriers increasingly face as they deliver the mail. These attacks are completely unacceptable,” NALC Executive Vice President Paul Barner said.
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