Postal Police Reform Act Introduced in Senate

NAPO has pledged our support for the Postal Police Reform Act, S. 3356, introduced by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Susan Collins (R-ME). This bill would restore PPOs to their full, authorized duties to protect our nation’s postal workers and mail system. NAPO’s letter of support can be found here.

As the uniformed members of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), postal police officers (PPOs) are authorized under law to enforce postal laws and regulations, carry firearms, and make arrests on and off postal property. PPOs are trained in the constraints of the use of force, the laws of search and seizure, civil rights of civilians, and receive advanced tactical training at an accredited federal law enforcement training academy. Until recently, postal police officers were deployed to various neighborhoods throughout their jurisdictions to protect letter carriers, mailboxes, and postal vehicles from criminal attack.

On August 25, 2020, however, the USPIS inexplicably ceased all off-property authorities of uniformed PPOs to proactively patrol and respond to reports of mail theft and attacks on letter carriers and the mail system away from postal controlled real estate. PPOs have been relegated to being overqualified security guards for U.S. Post Offices and facilities despite the increasing assaults of carriers and the epidemic of mail and package theft that our mail system is experiencing. The USPIS effectively neutered and defunded its own postal police force, while increasingly seeking the assistance of local law enforcement to assume duties previously performed by Postal Police.

NAPO thanks Senators Durbin and Collins for their leadership on this issue and we look forward to working with them to see this bill enacted into law.