Postal Thefts Surge in 2023

The U.S. Postal Service reports that postal thefts dramatically rose in the first half of this fiscal year, including an increase in "high volume" mail thefts, The Washington Post reports.

Statistics from the Postal Service show that 305 thefts from letter carriers were reported in the first six months of fiscal year 2023. In fiscal year 2022, 412 letter carrier thefts were reported in total. Fiscal year 2023 also saw 25,000 "high volume" mail thefts from mailboxes and other post receptacles within the first six months. In fiscal year 2022, 38,500 "high volume" thefts were recorded.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said, in a statement: "As crime rises, so do the threats against our public servants. The men and women of the Postal Service are walking our nation's streets every day to fulfill our mission of delivering mail and packages to the American people.

"Every Postal employee deserves to work in safety and to be free from targeting by criminals seeking to access the public's mail."

Postal Inspection Service Chief Gary Barksdale added: "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."

The Postal Service inspector general, Tammy Whitcomb Hull, told a House subcommittee in November that part of the reason for the increase in thefts is "the Postal Service's poor management controls over arrow keys — the keys used by carriers to open collection boxes, parcel lockers, and cluster box units."