[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 25, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1337-S1338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we do a lot to protect our identity and 
financial security from scammers and thieves. We guard our PIN numbers 
and passwords. We shred bills and financial documents. We are on guard 
for phishing attacks and cyber scams.
  But there is another, growing threat to our financial safety that 
many Americans are unaware of. Across the country, we are seeing a 
surge in armed robberies of letter carriers. In many of the attacks, 
the robbers steal

[[Page S1338]]

an ``arrow key.'' That is a master key that unlocks the blue collection 
boxes you drop your mail into, as well as cluster mailboxes in 
subdivisions and other multi-unit mailboxes. With an arrow key, a 
robber can open mailboxes and steal whatever is in there, including 
packages and prescription medications. And often, they steal checks. 
This can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and other serious 
crimes.
  Here is how it works: The robbers use the dark web and messaging apps 
to sell the stolen checks. The cyber criminals who buy the stolen 
checks then use nail polish remover to wash and rewrite the checks for 
any amount they choose. A $15 check to your doctor can become a $15,000 
check to someone you have never heard of.
  Listen to these figures from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service: 
Between 2018 and 2021, robberies of letter carriers more than tripled, 
and robberies involving a gun more than quadrupled.
  And between March 2020 and February 2021, the Postal Inspection 
Service received 299,000 reports of mail theft, a 161-percent increase 
in mail thefts in just 1 year. And the problem is getting worse. In 
Chicago, at least a dozen postal carriers were robbed at gunpoint 
between early March and early April this year. Police say the robbers 
were armed with semi-automatic handguns. I have met with letter 
carriers in Chicago. They tell me they are fearful about what is 
happening. They worry that they could be next. And the looming threat 
of armed robbery is making it even harder to fill letter carrier 
vacancies.
  And this is not just a Chicago problem. Last year in Orlando, FL, two 
men were caught on video approaching a letter carrier at a condo 
complex. The postal worker was found robbed and beaten with a severe 
head injury. In January of this year, a 66-year-old letter carrier was 
kidnapped and robbed in Charlotte, NC. The list goes on and includes 
nearly every State in the country. These are not simply random attacks. 
Police say organized crime groups and gangs appear to be driving the 
increase in letter carrier robberies.
  We have seen something like this before. In 2011, after a similarly 
disturbing trend, I urged the former Postmaster General to implement a 
rapid alert system to inform letter carriers of any crimes committed in 
their vicinity. The alerts were a warning to letter carriers to be 
vigilant, and they helped. But now, the alerts have stopped. Now, I 
have serious concerns about many decisions by the current Postmaster 
General, but this decision seems especially wrong-headed.
  Yesterday, I met in Chicago with members of the National Association 
of Letter Carriers' Illinois chapter. I told them that I was sending a 
letter to both Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Attorney General 
Merrick Garland. I am asking the U.S. Postal Service and the Department 
of Justice to work together to prevent robberies of letter carriers--
and punish those who commit the robberies. They also need to crack down 
on the cyber thieves who buy and sell checks, arrow keys, and other 
property stolen from the Postal Service.
  And the Postal Service can act right now to reduce this surge in 
robberies by making some simple changes on its own. They should restart 
crime alerts to letter carriers. USPS also can reduce the financial 
motivation driving many of these robberies by investing in new 
technology that would enable two-factor authentication for dropboxes 
and cluster mailboxes.
  Letter carriers are proud of their long tradition of braving rain, 
snow, and sleet to deliver the mail. But they cannot brave this threat 
on their own. USPS and DOJ must step up to better protect letter 
carriers and the tens of millions of American families and businesses 
that depend on the U.S. Postal Service.

                          ____________________