Head of postal police union weighs in as mail theft rises Tulsa, U.S.

TULSA, Okla. — FOX23 has been investigating a string of mail thefts across Green Country.

Criminals have been breaking into the blue collection boxes outside of post offices in Tulsa and Owasso, forcing employees to tape the bins shut to protect people from thieves.

Now, the National President for the Postal Police Officers Union is weighing in.

Frank Albergo reached out to FOX23 Investigative Reporter Janna Clark after watching our FOX23 Investigations about the mail theft problem. In his email, Albergo said mail theft has exploded recently and that the postal service does little to attack the issue.

“The postal service downplays the mail theft problem. They don’t issue warnings, they’ll tape up a blue collection box, but they won’t explain why,” said Albergo. “They very rarely notify the community that there’s a mail theft problem. Usually the banks are the ones notifying the victims.”

Gloria Daniel is one of those victims.

She found out from her bank that someone stole her personal check from a blue post office mailbox. The crook washed it, changed the name and the dollar amount, and sold it on the dark web.

“It’s very scary because it’s nothing I would have thought would happen otherwise. I wouldn’t have put a check in there,” said Daniel.

Criminologist David Maimon says stealing checks from the mail is an old crime that has become popular again.

READ>>>FOX23 Investigates: How to protect yourselves from mailbox thieves

“We’re talking about 11,000 checks every month,” said Maimon. “It’s not a group of adolescents stealing your mail. We’re talking about organized crime groups, who at the end of the day, know exactly what they are doing.”

FOX23 spoke to postal inspector Paul Ecker about the thefts and what’s being done to stop them. “I never want to leave on a bad note, like, oh, doom and gloom. So I would just say postal inspectors are actively working to find anyone who would target the mail. And the mail is still a reliable, safe source,” said Ecker.

Postal police officers and postal inspectors are the ones who investigate mail crimes. Right now, there are 1300 postal inspectors and 350 postal police officers.

Ecker said postal inspectors made more than 1,500 arrests last year across the country. That’s a little more than one arrest per inspector.

However, Albergo says many of the people committing mail crimes are getting away with it. He says it points to a lack of resources. 20 years ago, there were 1,300 police police officers.

The force was reduced another 20 percent in 2020. That same year, The Postal Inspection service stripped postal police officers of their jurisdiction authority, limiting patrol to postal-owned properties.

Albergo recently spoke at a meeting hosted by the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, where Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-MA) serves as chairman.

“We’re now approaching a point where this is a cost-free crime. Your chance of being investigated, being prosecuted, being pursued, being convicted and ultimately serving any kind of either jail time, or other compensation is close to nil. And that is a very dangerous situation,” said Rep. Connolly.

Albergo wants lawmakers to make changes to protect your mail.

“It’s just going to get worse from here. Mail theft has become contagious,” said Albergo. “Criminals are realizing it’s very profitable. And the inspection service is doing very little to stop it. So they have a police force, they should use it.”

FOX23 reached out to the U.S. Postal Service, and they sent us this response:

“The Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement, crime prevention, and security arm of the Postal Service. Postal Inspectors are federal law enforcement agents who conduct investigations of postal-related crime, such as mail fraud and theft, violent crimes against postal employees, revenue fraud, dangerous mail, illegal drugs in the mail, and child exploitation conducted via the mail. The U.S. Postal Service delivers almost 130 billion pieces of mail a year to over 163 million customers, and Postal Inspectors are mandated to safeguard all of it — including the people who move it and the customers who use it. The U.S. Mail remains one of the most secure means of transmitting personal information. Although the number of true mail theft incidents is relatively low (considering the amount of mail that is successfully delivered daily), Postal Inspectors take each incident seriously and every complaint is reviewed. Ultimately, the decision to prosecute federally rests with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Postal Police are uniformed officers who perform law enforcement duties at designated facilities owned, occupied, or controlled by the U.S. Postal Service. The authority of Postal Police Officers, established by federal statute, did not change in 2020, and they have remained an integral component of our law enforcement mission. As part of the Postal Inspection Service, Postal Police Officers protect Postal Service facilities along with the employees and customers, Postal Service property, assets, and the U.S. Mail on that property. The responsibility to investigate postal-related offenses that occur off U.S. Postal Service property belongs to Postal Inspectors, who routinely engage with our law enforcement partners who actively patrol the municipalities where our letter carriers deliver mail.

The complement for Postal Police Officers has remained unchanged in the last 10 years. Attrition, mainly due to retirement eligibility combined with the inability to operate the training academy during the COVD-19 pandemic, made it difficult to keep Postal Police Officers at their authorized complement. The Postal Inspection Service restarted Postal Police Officer Basic Training courses in August 2022, and we look forward to replenishing our essential uniformed police force.”