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New tech for Postal Service’s blue mailboxes aims to deter theft as robberies rise

By Jennifer Eagan

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    BOSTON (WCVB) — The Postal Service is upgrading blue mail collection boxes with new technology to prevent thefts amid a rise in mail carrier robberies.

“This is an ongoing process. You can imagine how many locks there are to upgrade. It’s going to take us some time,” Danielle Schrage, a postal inspector, said.

According to the Postal Police Officers Association, robberies of letter carriers surged from 64 nationwide in fiscal year 2019 to 605 in fiscal year 2023.

“Under Project Safe Delivery, we have increased rewards for information on those committing crimes,” Schrage said.

“The Postal Service has a police force. Why don’t they use their police force before they depend on local law enforcement? This is crazy,” Frank Albergo, head of the Postal Police Officers Association, said.

The Postal Police Officers Association said their police force was benched in 2020 over a labor dispute, ending their patrols in neighborhoods.

“Turns out that criminals don’t rob letter carriers when they see postal police on patrol. That’s just common sense, but unfortunately, common sense is not common in the Postal Service,” Albergo said.

“They’re questioning why they are not being used to prevent crime. I don’t know what to say to that besides they are here protecting the facility and the employees in it. It is our job to go out on the street and conduct those investigations, not theirs,” Schrage said.

“Think about that. As mail theft is skyrocketing, they take postal police off the streets and confine them to government buildings. That makes no sense,” Albergo said.

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