The Postal Police Officers Association says they went from patrolling the streets to deter crimes like mail theft to being stationed at postal processing facilities.
"Carriers are being attacked, mail is being stolen, and Postal Police Officers are benched," said Edna Sepulveda, the Postal Police Officers Association Second Vice President.
Sepulveda says throughout her career, she's caught plenty of mail thieves in action.
"We call them the fisherman where a criminal would fish mail out of the collection box," she said.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
But Sepulveda's role and that of hundreds of other Postal Police Officers changed when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced that by law the jurisdiction of the officers is limited to postal service facilities.
In a statement, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service told NBC6 that "clarification concerning the jurisdiction of Postal Police Officers (PPOs) was received in 2017 and messaged out to PPOs and PPO management through 2018 and 2019. The Postal Inspection Service deemed it necessary to provide further guidance on the role of PPOs in a written communication in August 2020."
"If a criminal knows that there's no longer going to be an officer present within the proximity of certain areas, they're going to target more victims," Sepulveda said.
Local
Prompted by anecdotal accounts of an uptick in mail theft around the country, NBC News obtained USPIS data that showed mail theft reports soared by 600% from 2017 to 2020. USPIS, however, later said the figures were inaccurate and reflected multiple types of customer complaints.
"It doesn't make sense to stop postal police from policing when we’re needed the most," Sepulveda said.
According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, there is a team assigned to protect your mail.
“The investigation of mail theft is the jurisdiction of U.S. Postal Inspectors. Postal inspectors are federal law enforcement agents who conduct investigations of postal-related crime, such as mail fraud and theft," said a statement from USPIS.
"We were at once 2,700 strong and now we are less than 400. So essentially we are being defunded," Sepulveda said.
The Postal Police Officers Association is currently working on trying to get a bill passed in Congress to restore their jurisdictional authority.
