During a House Oversight Committee hearing in July, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) asked National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe about mail theft.
00:00Mr. Mfume, I would offer, if you have any other questions, I, while being here, I have found this most instructive.
00:12It is a question that you and I and probably every member deals with one way or another, sometimes frustration, sometimes achievement.
00:23But I will tell you that one thing that you and I know, and that is the men and women, by and large, vastly across this service, are devoted to not only their job, but also think of themselves as being public servants also.
00:38And I think that that is a high standard that speaks volume about each and every one of you.
00:44Chief, you would fit in there also, though not with the Postal Service, but in service.
00:48Let me follow up on this matter of cluster boxes and arrow keys.
00:54It seems like it's all I've been talking about the last five years.
00:59Is it correct to assume that if I rob you and I'm able to evade the Postal Police and I go to a cluster box and take this universal key and put it in, it will open all of my access to all of the mailboxes.
01:14Is that correct?
01:15Is there a code that has to precede that?
01:18No, but so the arrow lock and key system that we've had for many years that we still utilize today in most of the country, if you get your hands on that key, you can open anything at minimum within that zip code, sometimes far, far, far beyond that collection boxes, cluster boxes.
01:38It's one of the reasons that a very, very important piece of this solution is an effort that the Postal Service has already undertaken, and that is to replace them with an electronic alternative.
01:50We've done testing in the past.
01:53They are as aggressively as they can replacing them with an electronic alternative that does not have that same value.
02:00And how many of these cluster boxes do you anticipate exists nationwide?
02:05Well, there are over 9 million locks, which is every one of those locks has got to be changed manually, and that's one of the important pieces of the bipartisan legislation that's been introduced in the House and the Senate.
02:18The Protect Our Letter Cares Act is that it will provide funding so that the Postal Service could speed up replacement of not just that entire key system, but also the high-security collection boxes that Mr. Donovan mentioned.
02:31Right, and I understand.
02:32I mean, I'm a co-sponsor of the bill here in the House.
02:35I get it.
02:36Trust me.
02:37I'm just trying to figure out how in the hell did we get in a situation where we created an entry system for 9 million or how many millions there are out there of boxes where there is going to be valuables, checks, personal information, medicine that people are waiting for.
02:54How did we get to that?
02:56Do you know?
02:56I think many years ago, decades ago, that was the only alternative, and like many other things with the Postal Service that we've talked about in this very room, it has been starved of modernization, and unfortunately, we are at a point where the modernization of this particular system being passed due is harming people, frankly.
03:15So until we get to the point through data and electronics and analytics that we can replace or reduce that, is there no suggestion, no way around that?
03:30I mean, we can't put a Postal Police officer at every cluster box, and so we know that this rate of crime continues to go up.
03:39Are there suggestions that any of you have about what we can do in the interim, knowing where we're trying to go with this?
03:48In the interim, what can take place to reduce some of the pain and a great deal of the loss that's out there every day?
03:56Well, when we know an arrow key is stolen and we know the same blue collection boxes are being hit over and over again, the same cluster boxes are being hit over and over again,
04:08and you have trained postal police officers, it might be a good idea to actually deploy those postal police officers to protect those boxes that are being infiltrated.
04:20Well, Mr. Albergo, it seems to me that the previous postmaster reduced the authority of postal police and on many occasions said that their jurisdiction was not applicable here, there, or somewhere else,
04:34and the Congress did not, in my opinion, do all they could to provide the resources, so you're understaffed, you're in a situation where we've got a new postmaster,
04:46there's previous precedent where the outgoing, a long-gone postmaster has said,
04:52postal police should not go here, they should not go there, they should not do this, and we're going to provide less money.
04:57So I guess if, I don't want to tell you what your testimony is here, but I'd like to know what you would suggest to this body before we conclude this hearing on how do we find a way to increase jurisdiction
05:07and at the same time increase the ability to bring on more.
05:11Well, the enabling statute that gives postal police their authority is ambiguous.
05:16So the Postal Service can interpret that statute any way they want.
05:20They made a policy choice to bench the postal police force during a postal crime wave.
05:28I mean, it was misguided.
05:30They are saying, you know, I mean, what are they supposed to say at this point?
05:34It was really stupid.
05:35I mean, that's not what they're going to say.
05:37So they're looking for excuses when they, you know, and who's suffering?
05:44I mean, when they harden those blue collection boxes, it just displaced the crime.
05:49It put a target on letter carriers' backs, and carriers started getting robbed.
05:56And while that was happening, the inspection service, you know, it wasn't actually their choice.
06:00It was postal legal that made the decision.
06:05They grounded the postal police.
06:07And not only did they ground us, when media asked why, they said, well, postal police don't have any jurisdictional authority.
06:16And, you know, most people don't differentiate postal police from the Postal Inspection Service.
06:22So the Postal Service was actually saying the Inspection Service, well, this is what people were hearing.
06:27The Inspection Service doesn't have authority to arrest male thieves.
06:32So it was a criminal free-for-all.
06:34Yeah, yeah.
06:36That it was.
06:37That it was.
06:37Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
06:39Thank you, Mr. Alburgo.
06:40Thank you very much.
06:43This now ends the hearing portion of this.
06:47And I would defer to Mr. Infume if he would choose to give a closing statement.
06:54And then I plan to.
06:57I really don't have much more to say.
07:00I think the witnesses can see my frustration.
07:02I can see their frustration.
07:03We all have different roles in trying to figure this out.
07:07And I think we all feel a great deal of empathy for victims across this country who are expecting medicine or valuables or checks in the mail only to find out that they don't get them.
07:20And then, of course, the people who are delivering them are under threat of being robbed, shot, stabbed, or killed.
07:26It's, it's, maybe we ought to conclude on my side with that, Mr. Chairman.
07:32I want to thank them again and thank you and certainly yield back for whatever statement you might have.
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